Not sure if this helps, but Thinkst is a South African company that provides "security services". Maybe they mean that most security providers didn't see it co

Not sure if this helps, but Thinkst is a South African company that provides "security services". Maybe they mean that most security providers didn't see it coming. Some people would think that the NSA are part of the set of security providers and hence, in a way, it's not that you don't see something coming, it's simply that you don't see them as the aggressor. If you change from the topic of "computer security" to "nuclear weapons" then perhaps you can see how intelligence gathering, obfuscation and subterfuge is perhaps not an inherently offensive thing. For nuclear weapons, I think the only objective is to prevent nuclear explosions. Some people think the US's role is to stop nuclear war; some people think the US is part of the problem. My personal take on the topic is that Snowden's main role was to challenge the idea that the NSA is keeping the peace.