[scintill76]

> Brennan, the hacker says, replied, “How much do you really want?”

Could be an embellishment, but it sounds like he really was willing to pay something. Perhaps more for his personal privacy than out of fear of national secrets leaking, though.

[vinceguidry]

Doubt it. Sounds to me like he was fishing for information so he could find out who they were. If they'd said, "Sure, we want $X million!" then they'd have to hash out a delivery method, all of a sudden they're on USGov's turf.

[scintill76]

True. They could have tried bitcoin. Receiving is the easy part -- spending it and remaining free might have been a problem, though...