> Their worry is that foreign countries will eventually retaliate by charging people who are involved in US government programs to hack those foreign countries.
Good. If you get caught committing a crime you should be charged with it.
> Another worry is that indicting people might give away information information about your sources and methods.
Also good. US intelligence should not be holding back 0days.
Apparently there no longer is a universally accepted definition of peace time, or military personnel for that matter. See Omar Khadr fiasco for example.
> - they kill other military personnel during peace time
I see that you did some effort choosing the word "peace time" to be able to say "well we are at peace with China, thus this is fine to charge them", but at the end of the day, what is peace time? Does receiving the order to attack a target make it become a war? They got an order to attack the US company, this is not peace.
> I see that you did some effort choosing the word "peace time" to be able to say "well we are at peace with China, thus this is fine to charge them"
Incorrect, actually I did it because I am against events such as the murder of the Irani general. I personally do not think that hacking should be illegal so I do not think that the chinese agents should be charged in this instance.
it's up to the bank to provide a secure service. Also if you get hacked as a business a couple of times your insurance premiums will go up. In the same vein shoddy IoT devices (and I argue anything that is online) should be fair game exactly so that things have a chance to become more secure. BrickerBot (e.g. Janit0r) had the right ideas here ... Even Japan got inspired by Brickerbot and knocked many devices offline last year which have become unservicable and posed too great a liability.
If it were really about providing secure services then we'd be holding companies responsible, and even encouraging hackers to clean up those systems by hacking them. But it isn't about security so instead we're criminalizing hackers and engage in security-theater.
Good. If you get caught committing a crime you should be charged with it.
> Another worry is that indicting people might give away information information about your sources and methods.
Also good. US intelligence should not be holding back 0days.