I was reading the article in utter confusion too. I personally think it's the authorities trying to save face, as I don't think even a computer-literate high school kid would make these mistakes.
From when they planned for the capacity, probably not. But how do we, at any time, know that hasn’t happened in the past?
> A government 51% attack would probably involve doing a private chip run.
Sure, and when that classified capacity is acquired via, say, the NSA’s black budget, we’ll all know before (or, heck, even after, until they decide to something disruptive with it) they decide to light up the capacity...how?
OTOH, any attack won’t just be to redirect funds, because that can’t be done without broader disruption that would make it pointless for that purpose.
51% attacks don’t allow for withdrawing funds from an account - only for rolling back recent transactions