You think they need this garbage?
Nope. Anyone who believes that the top level surveillance arms of government can't get it's hands on whatever it needs, if it needs it, lives in a fantasy world. And this has been true for decades.
And, note, this is entirely separate from the conspiracy fantastacism that insists that each and every one of us is being monitored, closely and individually, all the time by the government. Google and Microsoft both do a much better job of that, because it's to their benefit to do so.
@Sky-Knight, I'm right there with you on this being a false story (not as reported by the reporter, but by the hackers). Data that extensive would be worth a LOT more than $50K, and any data such as this, when obtained, has a very short usable shelf life. If you're going to sell it then it's for very big bucks, very quickly, and, most often, very quietly.
Hacking at that level, when for profit as opposed to creating chaos, is not performative in nature, it's surreptitious before, during, and most importantly, after.
