Several years ago I worked with a senior tech that had previously worked for the NSA. For his personal private data he secured it using nothing less than 4096 b

Several years ago I worked with a senior tech that had previously worked for the NSA. For his personal private data he secured it using nothing less than 4096 bit encryption. Due to his confidentiality agreements he couldn't provide specifics about the NSA's capabilities, he only would share his own personal security practices. After that discussion I concluded that if the US Government wanted to know something about you they could find out. Not only by technical means, but by any channel you could likely imagine. These guys are smart, the idiots you hear about in the media are field agents, not the back office folks conducting the real security work. Since that time I've also assumed that the US has encryption technology that is at least 5 years ahead of public research. Today, I assume that means the US has access to a functional quantum computer and anything using today's encryption standards are left insecure if the right 3 letter agency wants to know.