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Ultimately, the government's calls for backdoors into strong encryption are bullsh!t.

They can always resort to traditional means of decryption:

"Black-bag" decryption" -- being sneaky and using subterfuge rather than high-tech to gain the password.
"Rubber-hose decryption" -- beating the crap out of people until they give up the password.

The ONLY reason they want backdoors is they are LAZY SOBs. Let 'em work for it.

All hail (and all credit to) XKCD.COM.

All hail (and all credit to) XKCD.COM.

Love the cartoon. . . The truth is, even the million dollar cluster would be a cluster F waste of money to attempt such a crack. Rubber-hose and water-boarding, much quicker and far more effective.

They can always resort to traditional means of decryption:
"Black-bag" decryption" -- being sneaky and using subterfuge rather than high-tech to gain the password.
"Rubber-hose decryption" -- beating the crap out of people until they give up the password.
These techniques are sufficient for all legally authorized government surveillance (most notably, someone refusing to provide files after being presented with a warrant can be held for contempt of court, which I suppose would be considered an example of a lawful "rubber hose" option).

The Feds want to sweep this fact under the rug, because relying on these options keeps them constrained. Planting bugs, reconstructing messages from electromagnetic noise, etc requires investments in manpower and equipment, and holding people for contempt until they produce records is done in the public eye. Thus, they Feds are limited to picking and choosing actual suspects rather than spying on everybody. Well, too bad -- that's what they're supposed to be doing anyway.