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This is a _really_ good article after reading through thousands of emails. It also provides good insights into the bigger picture, and what kind of fascinating glimpse this email leak provides in to a secretive industry.

I'm glad this whole thing has happened.

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It's in a series of really good articles on this story. Thank you Ars.

Please don't think that the information security industry (or penetration testing or malware niche) in general is like this. While many firms have relationships with defence contractors, the local military and intelligence agencies, we're not all writing undetectable rootkits and exploit code for commercial gain. I would say the actions disclosed in the very well written article (in a series of very well written articles) highlight one of a subset of security firms. I'm loathe to use the enron-esque bad apples description, because the truth is I just don't know but I suspect that such actions are limited to a minority of firms.

Considering the amount of money governments are willing to spend on rootkits as compared to more benevolent activities, I suspect that these companies won't stay a minority for long.

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