That's a notion that's coming up more often recently. I think there are good reasons to suspect that governments are behind it, but complexity and sophistication are not good enough reasons.
Yes, governments are large organizations that can throw a lot of resources at a problem, but software isn't built like the pyramids of Giza where using more slaves moves more stones in a given a amount of time. A handful of competent people can build very complex and sophisticated software.
If I was a senior exec with Hell's Angels, I would offer a few hundred dollars a day to Moscow cab drivers,e.g., who happen to have Ph.D.s in computer engineering, mathematics, or other equally interesting degrees - people who are more than qualified for this sort of work, but who cannot find work in their fields and have mouths to feed.
In fact, I would probably establish a JV with an appropriate organization, have them recruit, manage, and build, take the product for my criminal uses, then allow the JV to market it to others, and split the profits from that use with my JV partner.
Business is business, even when it's crime.
"Caretos are masked young men dressed in suits made of yellow, red, black, blue and green fringe wool quilts, wearing brass, leather or wooden masks and rattles in their belts. ... They appear in groups from every corner of the village running and shouting excitedly, frightening the people and “robbing” all the wineries." [0]
The trojan referred to in this story is known by another name. [1]
The Washington Post article reads as FUD written by somebody who has little or no idea what he is writing about. As @yifanly mentions, most of the scary stuff mentioned is available as a premade kit for sale online.
