&gt; Government isn&#x27;t technically competent by itself, and doesn&#x27;t know how to select those who are.<p>This is just dead wrong. I think you&#x27;re conflating &quot;Government&quot; and &quot;Politicians&quot;. The government pays tech very well and hires intelligent people. I once did a consulting gig and went in with your exact mindset. It was the only time I&#x27;ve ever been fully confident that I was the dumbest person in the room.<p>The reason they&#x27;ll always lose is the sheer quantity of attacks. Every day we have front page posts critical of the US government. That sentiment (clearly) extends far beyond the front page of hacker news. I&#x27;d wager you wouldn&#x27;t have to put much effort into finding anti-governmental rhetoric in the comments section of a cooking website.<p>Beyond that, the weak link is rarely the technical side, e.g. Snowden. I think we all can be confident they will lose the information, but I really don&#x27;t believe it&#x27;s because they are technically incompetent.