When the First Sentence is Wrong, Why Read On?

Individuals, shadowy criminal organizations, and nation states all now have the capacity to devastate modern societies through computer attacks.

It's simply not true.

The author must not know the meaning of "devastate," which is, according to the handiest Web dictionary, "to lay waste; render desolate."

There is no such capacity—anywhere—to do such damage through computer attacks, and the capacity of some actors to produce some inconvenience, to cause some economic harm, and perhaps to cause...