I don't understand why people keep calling this a hack. The systems were accessed by normal means as allowed and configured by their systems administrators.
Data hijack, data destruction, or some other term indicating there was vandalization through allowed access means would serve the tech community better.
I agree with you.
I actually misread first before sharing the article and then read "these databases are MongoDB instances that feature no administrator password and are exposed to external connections from the internet"
If you configure a DB with admin access to the internet and no password, you are basically asking people to vandalise/temper with your DB.