What do super computers have to do with hacking?
Not really much, but it was giving an example of the costs of computing in general. More like an upper bound. That you could buy crazy expensive computers and it would cost nowhere near what actual weapons systems cost. I was just trying to say that the cost for hacking is more in man power rather than machinery. And man power is far cheaper than machinery.
The most immediate use case that comes to mind is breaking encryption.
Re:An update on the threat landscape
by speed_spread on Monday March 07, 2022 @11:17PM
(#30596394)
Successfully hacking the Gibson it the ultimate challenge!
Where are you getting hundreds of billions? Wikipedia says "As production wound down in 2011, the total program cost is estimated to be about $67.3 billion, with $32.4 billion spent on Research, Development, Test and Evaluation (RDT&E) and $34.9 billion on procurement and military construction (MILCON) in then year dollars."
Although not the F-22, modern fighters such as the F-35 can cost 100's of billions of dollars in R&D[0] (~150 billion iirc, with ~1.3 trillion total program cost).
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_F-35_Lightning...
Same reason NK is. Same reason every country is. It is rather cheap in comparison. I mean even the largest super computers only cost a few hundred million. That's rather cheap when you consider other military adventures. One state of the art super computer is roughly the price of one (maybe 2) modern jets. The biggest cost is people. And you can do a ton of damage with hacking.
The costs are low, benefits are high.
[0] Summit was $350m, and a F22 costs $140m (per jet, not including development costs which is hundreds of billions)