Free? It would have required more effort, but they could have encrypted all the data, and then sent the key to a well-known white-hat security researcher, or someone who could be trusted to administrate important cases (they'd of course be free to ignore it). The encryption could be done on the compromised server with a forEach, so it'd be a single request.
I think some people in this thread want to be a bit too "absolutist" about it. Everyone's servers were exposed to heartbleed, spectre, meltdown, etc so the absolutists would apparently want the whole internet deleted.
Edit: It would be helpful if down-voter could explain (I might learn something).
> and then sent the key to a well-known white-hat security researcher
Would you like it if someone involved you in adjudicating potentially illegal (under CFAA & others) without your consent?
This is clearly not a white hat hacker looking to teach people lessons about security. If it were, they could have furnished a list to the major cloud providers of broken instances and given them time to notify and remediate.
Sure even the best hardened Service can have vulnerabilities, but that's how life is, better have a door with a key than one without, even when someone is capable to open your door with a Lock-pick.
> don't expose services that are not meant to face the Inet directly
I did not (in the slightest) suggest that people should do this. I was commenting on the "free-ness" of the lesson (read the comment I was replying to). It could have been more "free" with a little more effort. Straight-up deletion wasn't the only option.
>It could have been more "free" with a little more effort.
Even White-Hats work not for free (for companys).
Don't build Cars if you don't know how a break work, don't build IT-Services if you have no the slightest idea how to secure them.
I think some people in this thread want to be a bit too "absolutist" about it. Everyone's servers were exposed to heartbleed, spectre, meltdown, etc so the absolutists would apparently want the whole internet deleted.
Edit: It would be helpful if down-voter could explain (I might learn something).