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Re:Microsoft has detected nation-state activity associated w... by dragonwriter on Wednesday October 27, 2021 @02:00PM (#29016735)
> The "nation-" at the beginning of the term also doesn't add any context that is useful to understanding the story

Yes, it does, it distinguishes Westphalian sovereigns (like thr U.S.) from federated states (like Rhode Island).

Re:Microsoft has detected nation-state activity associated w... by pvg on Wednesday October 27, 2021 @02:50PM (#29017443)
distinguishes Westphalian sovereigns

This introduces the much more serious meta-problem of distinguishing commenters who merely happen to use 'Westphalian' from Lyndon LaRouche fans.

Re:Microsoft has detected nation-state activity associated w... by tptacek on Wednesday October 27, 2021 @04:58PM (#29019025)
It does that by abusing a term that isn't directly applicable, and meanwhile there is no serious ambiguity: when people say "state-level actors", nobody thinks they're talking about Nebraska. People talk about "statecraft", not about "nation-statecraft".
Re:Microsoft has detected nation-state activity associated w... by dragonwriter on Wednesday October 27, 2021 @05:06PM (#29019143)
> It does that by abusing a term that isn't directly applicabl

It is directly applicable, and not at all a used; the broader functional (Westphalian sovereign) and social (the functional definition + two-way close mapping to a nationality) definitions of “nation-state” are both technical definitions widely used (and distinguished by context) in the field from which the term originates. (Just like “consistency” has different meanings in a CAP context vs. an ACID one, except with less ambiguity for “nation-state”, because compared to the functional and social definitions of “nation-state”, the CAP and ACID definitions of “consistency” are far more likely to both be plausibly relevant in the same context.)

The common use in cybersecurity is exactly the functional definition, not an abuse of terminology.

Re:Microsoft has detected nation-state activity associated w... by tptacek on Wednesday October 27, 2021 @08:32PM (#29020893)
The common use in cybersecurity is puffery (as of course is the term "cyber").