Spy agencies bypassed internet security by tapping directly into undersea fiber-optic cables.

To get around security, the government went straight to the physical tubes that carry the internet. A program called MUSCULAR tapped undersea cables linking Google and Yahoo data hubs. This let spies copy emails and chats from hundreds of millions of users worldwide. They also deliberately weakened encryption, which is the digital lock that keeps our banking and personal data safe from hackers.