It is posts like this that make me think twice about reading the comments on NSA stories. For starters how many intelligence agencies publicize their successes? Do you think other four eyes purchase full page ads detailing the highlights of successful intelligence operations?
Anyway lets skip the banal "intelligence agencies failures are public and the successes are private" and get to actual examples:
Exactly my point. An organization like the NSA can say "Oh, yeah. We've had great success. We can't tell you what it was, of course. Just take our word for it. What's that you're typing there? Don't want to tell us? It doesn't matter, because we already know."
And yet off the top of my head I was able to provide you with four programs/ways NSA has benefited the lives of US citizens. Why did you ask for examples if you were going to completely ignore them?
I don't trust a cryptography tool that the NSA says is secure when they openly and proudly spy on US citizens. Centers of Academic Excellence? They are probably also involved in the School of the Americas. Just calling something a school doesn't make it a good thing.
Anyway lets skip the banal "intelligence agencies failures are public and the successes are private" and get to actual examples:
DES SBoxes
SELinux
NSA Academic Centers of Excellence
VENONA