[chris_mahan]

Against the NSA? The same NSA we ask to intercept Russian, Chinese, Japanese, German, and Iranian encrypted Internet traffic? (To name a few. I'm sure the French are in there too.) Russia and China, I am sure, have enough smart people working on their cyber defenses that the NSA would have to be very, very, very good to penetrate those defenses. And if indeed they are, then do you think Google stands a chance?

[ilyanep]

Do we think that Google (which boasts among current and former employees: Joshua Bloch, Guido van Rossum, Sebastian Thrun, Luis von Ahn, and that's just off the top of my head) might have some superstar cryptologists in there with equal or greater talent than people working for the Russian government? Why would that be so unbelievable?

[packetslave]

I'd add folks like Adam Langley, Damien Miller, and Michal Zalewski to that list.

[saalweachter]

Don't forget Vint Cerf.

[thrownaway2424]

You think Google is just running all their datacenter traffic through a Sonicwall or something? Think about it.

[Zigurd]

Read up on the Crypto AG exploit. How many foreign governments still use Crypto AG gear for diplomatic communications?

Yes, they should be a lot more security conscious. But you might surprised how many trusted commercial vendors.