Why Lavabit Shut Down: interview with Ladar Levinson

Ladar Levinson has given an exclusive interview to the Guardian, discussing the saga that led to his decision to shut down Lavabit , the encrypted email provider that shut operations rather than betray the contents of users' inboxes to federal agents.

Metafilter provides some interesting, ensuing commentary . In particular, there's an interesting assertion in the comments, by "jacobian":

"The lesson we've learned, over and over again, from the Snowden revelations is that the NSA hasn't been able to actually break cryptography: choose a good algorithm and a strong key, and no amount of technical work will break that crypto. What does break a cryptosystem are people. People choose bad passwords. People practice bad computer hygiene."

Is that really all it takes? Because I get the distinct impression the NSA has broken Internet encryption protocols and is busy getting all up in your stuff. Is that just what they want you to think? What's the real deal on encryption on the Internet?