Linksys is owned by Cisco, who are well-known for their incredible spinelessness and ability to give into the US Government's requests. Their backdoors are intentional.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linksys
> The Linksys company was founded in 1988. It is currently owned by Belkin, who bought it from Cisco Systems, its owners from March 2003 to March 2013