I think it's _hugely_ unlikely that the NSA has a way to break something like AES-256. Advances in crypto of that magnitude don't come out of nowhere, and there

I think it's _hugely_ unlikely that the NSA has a way to break something like AES-256. Advances in crypto of that magnitude don't come out of nowhere, and there's not even a hint of how you would do that on the radar. That being said... A focused attack by the US Government is a treat model that you just can't protect against (and still use any sort of modern technology). You can use all the encryption you want... They're gonna drop rootkits on your devices, bug your house and car, compromise your associates, etc... The fact that there have been some cases where encryption prevented an 'easy' wiretap, it doesn't mean they weren't able to get the information through some other means.