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The NSA would rather die than come in from the cold. Frankly, for the NSA, coming clean probably means a swift death. Heaven only knows what vast, embarrassing skulduggery the agency is up to under Fort Meade with its 40,000 mathematicians, but whatever it is, the NSA certainly doesn't want to stop just because computers belong to everybody now. So the U.S. government has never been honest about crypto and what it means to people in real life. The whole issue is densely shrouded in billowing dry ice and grotesque X-Files hooey. And that's why crypto is still very scary.
Bruce Sterling is a leading writer in the cyberpunk school of science fiction. His latest book is A Good Old-Fashioned Future