Okay fair, it's unreasonable to ask Google (who have a limited budget) to 'compete' with the grey market.
But isn't then the conclusion to introduce bug bounties with unlimited budgets, e.g. sponsored through the European Union?
It would be interesting to see how high the prices really go - at some point NSO clients might see more efficiency in going for more traditional military means.
On whether it's being unable or unwilling: one could argue that various gov agencies actively invest in keeping software insecure, e.g. by buying up zero-days.
This might be a bit naive but doesn't a cold war by definition imply the possibility of it getting hot?
Or in other words: Isn't a cold war that is impossible to get hot just peace?
Perhaps a better question would be: Consider two parties starting out relatively reasonable. Over time, members of both parties claim the other party is becoming unreasonable or outright crazy. This could be true in the following to scenarios:
(1) Both parties have become crazy. Both parties would be correct in their claims but of course also guilty of having gone crazy.
(2) Party A has stayed reasonable and party B has become crazy. Party A would be correct in their claim and party B's claim would be part of them being crazy.
How do you distinguish between (1) and (2) from the outside?
It would be interesting to see how high the prices really go - at some point NSO clients might see more efficiency in going for more traditional military means.