The article notes that the target's former employer makes hackng tools and they separated on bad terms. Seems like it easily could just be the target's former employer.
I would be more surprised if these employers didn’t target their employees to prevent leaks of trade secrets, union activity, or other internal dissent. Having the power would be too tempting to resist, and besides, there is some degree of legitimate concern; it would be easy enough for rogue employees to sell exploits on the side for millions (there are plenty of buyers).
Another reason not to work at places like this.
Yeah I think the sensibilities inside orgs like that filters out folks with some values and the result would be ... not a lot of trust.
I'm not disagreeing with you, but doing so would open them up to criminal charges and liability. Rightly or wrongly, selling exploits is not illegal. Hacking your employees devices is.
True, but most governments probably aren’t interested in pressing charges against critical vendors, as long as the product is delivered.