As someone not from the US, the passages about how easy it was are clear reminders that just because only the NSA got caught, does not mean only the NSA was doing it.
Even if they have by far the biggest budget...
Everyone is being spied on. Perhaps the only distinction worth making is whether you’re being spied on by your own government in addition to foreign governments.
As extortion is the central procedure of spycraft, people trained in its use by the government also have access to the "goods". Criminal intent is no bar to employment by Booz Allen, or by NSA or FBI proper, never mind Russian GRU or FSB or their Chinese counterparts.
Extortion works for anybody.
We're in a multi-party cyberwar. We have been for years. It involves both governments and NGOs. Most of the players are pushing as hard as they can, short of real warfare, to gain the advantage over the others.
That's a much tougher story to tell, since it doesn't have clear heroes and villains. Also it involves a lot of technical stuff Joe Layman doesn't want to process. Because of this, media outlets are always going to tell the simpler story. The overwhelming danger here is that nobody learns what is going on, which presumably is the point of having a media outlet in the first place.