[RhoTheta]

So now who does anybody trust when it comes to operating system security? How do we protect ourselves? Does the NSA have backdoors to every firewall, every malware protection software and every encryption scheme?

[Ouderkirk]

To your question... I would have to say YES THEY DO

[SnuffaBolshevik]

Resign yourselves to the certainty that the Feds can and will record, store, read, listen to, look at, disseminate, corrupt and act on any electronic communication you have engaged in, regardless of any security fig leaf you may think you have in place. That includes stuff from decades ago.

Engage the Suck, ‘cause it ain’t going away.

[LaRueLaDue]

OpenBSD, OpenSSH, OpenVPN, OpenSMPTD, Gnu PG, etc.

[ColdSteelTalon]

The best thing to do is find a company that has programmers that have not kowtowed to any government, and that writes encryption without back doors or flaws in the algorithm.

I have heard there are former American citizens who renounced their citizenship so that they could legally write such encryption software.

[jpsb]

"So now who does anybody trust when it comes to operating system security?"

And Open Source OS that you compile yourself would be the safest bet. Since thousands of eyes are looking at the source code. Just make sure any libraries you compile with are Open Source too.