That year, 2013, the NSA claimed that it planned to “reach full operating capability for SIGINT access to a major Internet Peer-to-Peer voice and text communications system.” The Snowden leaks did not say which system, but Skype was the obvious suspect. It also claimed to have “complete enabling for the two leading encryption chip makers used in Virtual Private Network and Web encryption devices.” In other words, the NSA was making fools of anyone who believed they could thwart spies using off-the-shelf encryption tools like VPNs—
