You both have a point, so I would word it in a different way: if we devoted enough resources to track hackers down no matter where, could we lessen their impact? It would take a crazy amount of resources, like sending in infiltration teams into hostile countries. It is technically possible, but where is the balancing point?
What will you do when you find them? if you find one in say France, the French will deal with it and attacks stop. However most attacks are tracedto North Korea or Russia where they don't care and so you can't do anything.
