Things like Stuxnet show us that regardless of how true this story is or who in fact sponsored it, infrastructure compromise is a global game. I suspect this is part of what Russians are talking about when asking to negotiate on cyberwarfare. If this is indeed them, they may see such compromise operations as necessary for reciprocity for the NSA's known systemic compromise of systems around the world, which surely makes them feel threatened. A reciprocal compromise would allow them to respond tit-for-tat if attacked, and give them negotiating room for diplomatic resolution.

So let's hope it's correctly attributed and not some criminals with nothing to lose.