How did the NSA snooped on the communications of Google and Yahoo users without breaking into a data center? The New York Times is reporting that it could be because they penetrated into fiber optic cables instead.

According to the "people with knowledge of the matter" line, they believe that the NSA penetrated an internet backbone to spy on those using Google and Yahoo.
The Internet companies' data centers are locked down with full-time security and state-of-the-art surveillance, including heat sensors and iris scanners. But between the data centers information was unencrypted and an easier target for government intercept efforts, according to three people with knowledge of Google's and Yahoo's systems who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The newspaper doesn't speculate how exactly the NSA did it, but damn was that smart or what? Not to mention holy shit scary. [New York Times]