For something with a lot of eyes on it, like the Linux kernel, I would think it unlikely. It's the smaller projects with no active maintenance that would be eas

For something with a lot of eyes on it, like the Linux kernel, I would think it unlikely. It's the smaller projects with no active maintenance that would be easier targets. At the end of the day, all operating systems have exploits. Nation states pay big money online to buy the exploits for their own use, before the good guys find them and out them. If your system is being compromised by a nation state, it is much more likely buy a purchased exploit than by an explicitly-added backdoor. I can't say anything about intercepting your communications, though. The NSA might or might not have technical ways of decrypting some of your encrypted communications.