Originally Posted by
Swissaire
If by " various computer systems " you mean your government agencies, those are encrypted.
Personal computer systems generally are not. They are routinely hacked, hourly these days, and meaningful information found in files (passwords, banking, personal information) is gleaned off and sold.
You might take a minute and read some of the more recent examples:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/security/crime/
Gotta tell ya that I have a lot more confidence in how I lock down my personal data than I do a government's "protection" of that data. Yes, they are supposed to encrypt the data and yes they are supposed to lock down those systems but there are too many breaches for my taste. I know what I have done to secure my info and it is pretty secure. Now if the government wants to put a super-computer to the task of cracking it, of course they can/will as enough computing cycles can brute force almost anything.