Full disclosure: I am not part of the "too-cool-for-school, yawn-we-already-knew-they were-doing-this-kinda-stuff" crowd. I have been, and continue to be, absolutely fascinated by the revelations about the NSA and its activities. Not long ago, all we could do is speculate about what the government's cyber mafia was up to. Now? Their operations, capabilities, intentions, lies, are all being laid bare; dragged reluctantly from the realm of myth and legend and plausible deniability into the inescapable realm of confirmed facts and culpability. In front of the whole world.

It blows me away.

The magnitude of this latest story only heightens my sense of awe about it all.

In short: the NSA/GCHQ hacked the world's leading manufacturer of SIM cards and stole the encryption keys to the cards they make; and they make them for most of the world's major cell phone carriers.