>...large-scale attackers are already recording as much Internet traffic as they can. Do they throw the data away if it's encrypted with RSA-2048? Of course not

>...large-scale attackers are already recording as much Internet traffic as they can. Do they throw the data away if it's encrypted with RSA-2048? Of course not. They keep it forever[1], hoping and expecting that someday they'll develop the ability to decrypt it, for example by building a quantum computer. The Forbes reference actually says that an oversight body allows the NSA to keep encrypted data forever, not that they actually do. There is so much encrypted data on the internet now that the NSA would have to use a significant amount of all the storage produced each year to keep a running archive of everything. A victory of sorts... [1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/06/20/leaked-nsa-doc-says-it-can-collect-and-keep-your-encrypted-data-as-long-as-it-takes-to-crack-it/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/06/20/leaked...