&gt;<i>But one thing the NSA likes to say is that the backdoors they insert are only accessible to them, not to others.</i><p>Which is an empty statement when it comes to security principles. If you&#x27;ve placed a backdoor (and some are blatantly obvious if you look for it, like some SSL issues), then others can use it too. Most backdoors are not of the &quot;we have an encrypted password only we know&quot; variety, but of the purposeful hole to exploit.<p>&gt;<i>I see the benefit of inserting multiple backdoors. But none of them should be vulnerable to rival nations.</i><p>Except if the idea is to monitor the local population, and you do not care that much if others monitor them too.