Let me be clear. I don't mean that the sophisticated aspects of the theft absolve or excuse the US failure to guard against the loss. I just mean that the issues addressed in the Guardian article, i.e., sophisticated aspects to the thefts does not, to me, make the US look even worse on this issue. Failure to guard against the obvious warrants blame; failure to guard against sophisticated theft is less blameworhty.

(Neither, I hope, do you interpret and therefore reference this Guardian article for demonstrating sophisticated malfeasance by the US.)