5 ms·

It sounds more technical than “country” and is therefore better

• kelipso 11mo ago
  To me it sounds more like saying regime instead of government, gives off a sense of distance and danger.
• jacquesm 11mo ago
  Not really: nations state level actor: a hacker group funded by a country, not necessarily directly part of that country's government but at the same time kept at arms length for deniability purposes. For instance, hacking groups operating from China, North Korea, Iran and Russia are often doing this with the tacit approval and often funding from the countries they operate in, but are not part of the 'official' government. Obviously the various secret services in so far as they have personnel engaged in targeted hacks are also nation state level actors.