It's far more likely that these rumors were started by ego-maniacs who believe that any lock made by man and be broken by man. Quite true except for the problem of brute force time... I knew of one such idiot claiming he could break any code, even PGP. I have never seen him able to do so. Thems just idiots bragging the same way that the hackers/crackers of the 80's would brag and exagerate about their "heroic" deeds... Of course our wonderful Government is well known for its use of the FUD factor, so I certainly do not put it beyond their agenda, (D.Denning on AOL mentioned that she didn't know if the IDEA cypher that PGP uses was broken >YET< but she would comment no further. :-) Spreading inuendoes is probably more their style, and we all know how "Oh I think x is so" becomes "x is so" after bouncing around from person to person... Of course if someone doesn't trust PGP, they can take a few courses in cryptanalysis and take a shot or two at PGP to look for holes... :-)