[hnarn]

The post you're commenting on is a PDF file hosted on cia.gov, how is that any better? Or are you assuming that all readers of HN 1) are American citizens, and 2) that American citizens shouldn't care about possible threats from the CIA?

[jokowueu]

just to be clear are you implying that the CIA is hosting malware on their clearnet servers so every one can get infected ?

[hnarn]

Are you implying that injecting malware into specific targets is not the CIA’s job?

Nobody said they infect “everyone”, it’s most likely not even in their interest to do so.

[trasz]

Yeah, hosting malware is NSA's job.

[realo]

Maybe just a few specific MAC adresses?

[permo-w]

hacking provides a significant portion of the North Korean economy. the same cannot be said for the USA.

besides, the CIA has a lot more to lose. if you get a virus downloading a PDF from North Korean servers, that's The Scorpion and the Frog. you're not gonna get much sympathy. if you get a virus downloading a PDF from CIA servers, that's near enough an international incident

[hnarn]

Doing things that may cause international incidents is, while avoided as a matter of priority, literally the CIA’s job.

[permo-w]

something directly provable like a trojan pdf on their website would be doing that job extremely poorly

[funstuff007]

Are you creating a false equivalency between North Korea and American? If so, Noam Chomksy in the house!

[JadeNB]

I think analogies can be taken too far, but "both North Korea and the US are probably interested in compromising the computers of their adversaries, and may intentionally or unintentionally infect others in the process" doesn't seem too far-fetched to me. It's not the same as saying "North Korea and the US are functionally and ideologically the same."