[cpucycling]

Right, but this has nothing to do with the practice of protecting your private key.

That the most sophisticated attacker with the most resources may be able to tunnel into your data is no excuse for lax security.

[toomuchtodo]

I was replying to this parent post: "I email myself my encryption passwords so that I - and any interested government agencies - can log in without me needing to remember them all the time."

Yes, you should protect your private key. No, protecting it isn't going to stop a government agency. A VM is not Schroeder's cat: you can peak without there being any evidence. That was my point. Apologies if I wasn't straightforward in my explanation.