I would be amazed if they did this in plaintext across networks spanning multiple countries.

That would just open them up to being exposed.

But seeing that we're dealing with the US government, there is a non-zero chance they have backdoor keys to encryption used.

I have over 20 years software development in telecommunications environment and I would be amazed if they did this in plaintext across networks spanning multiple countries.

That would just open them up to being exposed.

But seeing that we're dealing with the US government, there is a non-zero chance they have backdoor keys to encryption used.