For more than half a century, governments all
over the world trusted a single company to keep
the communications of their spies, soldiers and
diplomats secret.
The company, Crypto AG, got its first break
with a contract to build code-making machines
for U.S. troops during World War II. Flush with
cash, it became a dominant maker of encryption
devices for decades, navigating waves of
technology from mechanical gears to electronic
circuits and, finally, silicon chips and
software.
The Swiss firm made millions of dollars
selling equipment to more than 120 countries
well into the 21st century. Its clients included
Iran, military juntas in Latin America, nuclear
rivals India and Pakistan, and even the Vatican.
But what none of its customers ever knew was
that Crypto AG was secretly owned by the CIA in
a highly classified partnership with West German
intelligence. These spy agencies rigged the
company’s devices so they could easily break the
codes that countries used to send encrypted
messages.
The decades-long arrangement, among the most
closely guarded secrets of the Cold War, is laid
bare in a classified, comprehensive CIA history
of the operation obtained by The Washington Post
and ZDF, a German public broadcaster, in a joint
reporting project.
That Crypto AG had been a CIA/NSA/BND operation
has been known for decades. One wonders why the CIA
history was now leaked to the Washington Post
and to the German state TV channel ZDF.