The CIA and West German intelligence secretly bought Swiss encryption maker Crypto AG in 1970, turning the machines governments paid to protect their secrets into a way to read them.
Those governments had no idea the machines were rigged to read their messages.
In the 1980s, Crypto devices accounted for roughly 40% of the foreign government messages the NSA decoded.
The CIA didn't sell the company until 2018 and called the operation "the intelligence coup of the century."
- The CIA and West German intelligence secretly bought Swiss encryption maker Crypto AG in 1970, turning the machines governments paid to protect their secrets into a way to read them. Those governments had no idea the machines were rigged to read their messages. In the 1980s, Crypto devices accounted for roughly 40% of the foreign government messages the NSA decoded. The CIA didn't sell the company until 2018 and called the operation "the intelligence coup of the century."
Now it is called ProtonMail
What's the modern-day equivalent? The CIA funding AI companies? Hmm, it is all starting to make sense.
