What Cambridge Analytica does is what any competent political analysis firm can do. The difference is that they have had access to a far larger dataset to crunch through, giving them a comparative advantage in terms of micro-targeting and network analysis. Up until now, how they have been able to do that has been something of a mystery - of course there is a thriving gray market in large databases with personal information, but precisely how much data they had to hand, and the original sources, was unknown.
Beyond that, they're doing cringey corporate spy shit. You don't need to be a genius to send a Ukrainian call girl to a politician, you just need investors willing to give cash and look the other way. Most of us could do that with the right bank account.
Strategic Communication Laboratories is a fairly large corporate military and intelligence contractor, who have definitely been using CA datasets along with their own AI tech. They've done work on terrorist propaganda and messaging, internet censoring (the recently unveiled Home Office program to censor ISIS propaganda was developed by ASD Labs, which has a "revolving door" relationship with SCL in terms of staff) and they are a fairly heavy hitter - not quite on the level of, say, Palantir, but clearly trying to be a competitor.
As such, CA's business in Russia with Lukoil and their involvement in Brexit and Trump is raising eyebrows in certain corners.
The theory on which a lot of this is based is pretty sound and has been around since the 50s, if not earlier (a lot of it was developed by talented amateurs during WWII, naturally). The difference now is the media and corporate context in which they operate. It's far easier to get the info, and it's far easier to deploy the info than at any previous time in history.
As for the FB "breach"...yeah, it's not a breach in technical terms, but I'm still happy to see them get dragged over the coals for it. FB's been doing shady shit and playing a game of "we're not responsible for what people use our platform for, but we'll promote sensationalist bullshit as hard as we can" for far too long now. And Zuckerberg, wherever he's currently hiding, definitely needs to be taken down a notch.