> But it doesn't absolve the attacker of any responsibility for damages caused, either.

stephen_g was questioning the assumption that he caused any damage at all.

> Surely it was NASA's bad security practices that cost them $41,000 - do they really think if he hadn't found the problem, they wouldn't ever have had to fix their insecure systems?

I don't think anyone was taking about absolution only weather or not the article was misleading.