[chatmasta]

> You don't have an issue with a foreign intelligence agency disrupting core infrastructure for a nation in the midst of a civil war? Especially against a nation we are not even at war with?

Intelligence agencies operate in foreign countries during peacetime. This is not a new phenomenon. Espionage is not limited to war, and it never has been. Peacetime espionage is 99% of all espionage, and much of the time, it's necessary to maintain that peacetime.

The US has spies in every country in the world, war or not. So does China, so does Russia, so does the UK, etc. It's just a fact of life. If a nation state is not spying, it's not doing its job.

[tomp]

We're not discussing espionage here. We're discussing the bricking of routers - destruction, or at least disruption, of core national infrastructure. It's like the difference between spying at a power station, and taking it offline for 5 hours.

[lern_too_spel]

We're discussing espionage. They screwed up and bricked the routers accidentally. If they had been successful, the routers would have appeared to function normally.

[qiqing]

And if they took down a power station accidentally, that would make it better somehow?

[lern_too_spel]

Espionage is something countries are expected to engage in even in peacetime, especially to gain intelligence on affairs that will have serious geopolitical consequences (like a civil war in the Middle East, for example). Do you disagree?

[baddox]

No, it's not a new phenomenon. But I think it's bad, and I don't think it's justified to say that each nation is "doing its job."