[nitrogen]

Two months ago the mainstream would have called anyone talking about the NSA a nutjob, and anybody not looking closely probably thinks Snowden is a vile traitor. No matter how "known" the issue is, every new piece of evidence helps convince a few more people to care.

[tptacek]

No, this isn't true; rather, it's something people on HN and Reddit say to make themselves feel smarter. In cryptography, it has been article of faith for decades that the NSA is actively working to subvert the security of public cryptography.

The problem with the rdrand conspiracy theory isn't that it's unreasonable to believe the NSA is trying to backdoor something; it's that it's a stupid backdoor, and that the logic that delivers you to the conclusion that it's a backdoor also concludes that everything else must be a backdoor.

[nitrogen]

I was only addressing res0nat0r's comment that the NSA's broad surveillance was well known, not the possibility that Intel's HWRNG is compromised. I agree that if you can't trust your CPU, all bets are off, but there is probably a different way of expressing the futility and improbability of such a situation that doesn't use the word tinfoil.