Crypto AG
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
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Crypto AG
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/c...firm-lskssvj5z
CIA and BND bugged 120 countries with Swiss firm
Margaret Thatcher benefited during the Falklands conflict from a spy programme that duped more than 120 countries, including Argentina, into buying communications hardware that allowed their messages to be intercepted by the CIA.
For more than 50 years a Swiss company, Crypto AG, was trusted by clients including the Vatican, Iran, India, Pakistan, several Nato powers and Latin American juntas to provide encryption devices that secured the communications of their spies, diplomats and military. None of its customers knew that behind Crypto AG lay a classified partnership between its joint owners: the CIA and the West German (and later German) intelligence agency BND.
The operation has only been exposed now in a project by The Washington Post and ZDF, a German public broadcaster. It reviewed a 96-page CIA chronicle of the operation, completed in 2004 by the agency’s internal history branch, and an oral history compiled by German intelligence in 2008. “It was the intelligence coup of the century,” the CIA report concluded. “Foreign governments were paying good money to the US and West Germany for the privilege of having their most secret communications read by at least two foreign countries.”
The business raised millions of dollars for the agencies. At one point in the 1980s about 40 per cent of the diplomatic cables and other transmissions by governments that analysts at the US National Security Agency mined for information were harvested through Crypto, according to the CIA report. The Soviet Union and China were suspicious of the Swiss company and never became customers.
In 1982 President Reagan exploited the dependence on Crypto of General Galtieri’s regime in Buenos Aires to pass Argentine communications to the UK during the Falklands conflict. The CIA records that Argentina suspected its equipment had been hacked. Kjell-Ove Widman, a Swedish maths professor recruited by the CIA in 1979 and made “scientific adviser” to Crypto’s chief executive, was sent to reassure the Argentinians. “The bluff worked,” the CIA history recorded.
Crypto was set up as an encryption company by Boris Hagelin, a Russian-born inventor who fled to Sweden during the Russian Revolution. In 1970 the CIA and the BND agreed to buy Mr Hagelin out for about $5.75 million. According to the documents they had help from the German company Siemens and the US company Motorola, neither of which has commented on its alleged involvement.
The BND left the company in the 1990s and the CIA sold its assets in 2018 to Cyone Security, which sells exclusively to the Swiss government, and Crypto International. A Cyone spokesperson said that the new firm had “no ties to any foreign intelligence services”. Andreas Linde, the chairman of Crypto International, said that his company had “never had any relationship with the CIA or BND”.
The Swiss government yesterday announced an investigation into the original Crypto’s ties to the CIA and BND.
CIA and BND bugged 120 countries with Swiss firm
Margaret Thatcher benefited during the Falklands conflict from a spy programme that duped more than 120 countries, including Argentina, into buying communications hardware that allowed their messages to be intercepted by the CIA.
For more than 50 years a Swiss company, Crypto AG, was trusted by clients including the Vatican, Iran, India, Pakistan, several Nato powers and Latin American juntas to provide encryption devices that secured the communications of their spies, diplomats and military. None of its customers knew that behind Crypto AG lay a classified partnership between its joint owners: the CIA and the West German (and later German) intelligence agency BND.
The operation has only been exposed now in a project by The Washington Post and ZDF, a German public broadcaster. It reviewed a 96-page CIA chronicle of the operation, completed in 2004 by the agency’s internal history branch, and an oral history compiled by German intelligence in 2008. “It was the intelligence coup of the century,” the CIA report concluded. “Foreign governments were paying good money to the US and West Germany for the privilege of having their most secret communications read by at least two foreign countries.”
The business raised millions of dollars for the agencies. At one point in the 1980s about 40 per cent of the diplomatic cables and other transmissions by governments that analysts at the US National Security Agency mined for information were harvested through Crypto, according to the CIA report. The Soviet Union and China were suspicious of the Swiss company and never became customers.
In 1982 President Reagan exploited the dependence on Crypto of General Galtieri’s regime in Buenos Aires to pass Argentine communications to the UK during the Falklands conflict. The CIA records that Argentina suspected its equipment had been hacked. Kjell-Ove Widman, a Swedish maths professor recruited by the CIA in 1979 and made “scientific adviser” to Crypto’s chief executive, was sent to reassure the Argentinians. “The bluff worked,” the CIA history recorded.
Crypto was set up as an encryption company by Boris Hagelin, a Russian-born inventor who fled to Sweden during the Russian Revolution. In 1970 the CIA and the BND agreed to buy Mr Hagelin out for about $5.75 million. According to the documents they had help from the German company Siemens and the US company Motorola, neither of which has commented on its alleged involvement.
The BND left the company in the 1990s and the CIA sold its assets in 2018 to Cyone Security, which sells exclusively to the Swiss government, and Crypto International. A Cyone spokesperson said that the new firm had “no ties to any foreign intelligence services”. Andreas Linde, the chairman of Crypto International, said that his company had “never had any relationship with the CIA or BND”.
The Swiss government yesterday announced an investigation into the original Crypto’s ties to the CIA and BND.
and we worry about Huawei..................
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One does not understand the decision to declassify that internal document(s).
One does not understand the decision to declassify that internal document(s).
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
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One does not understand the decision to declassify that internal document(s).
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graph...nes-espionage/
The German spy agency, the BND, came to believe the risk of exposure was too great and left the operation in the early 1990s. But the CIA bought the Germans’ stake and simply kept going, wringing Crypto for all its espionage worth until 2018, when the agency sold off the company’s assets, according to current and former officials.
The company’s importance to the global security market had fallen by then, squeezed by the spread of online encryption technology. Once the province of governments and major corporations, strong encryption is now as ubiquitous as apps on cellphones.
Even so, the Crypto operation is relevant to modern espionage. Its reach and duration help to explain how the United States developed an insatiable appetite for global surveillance that was exposed in 2013 by Edward Snowden. There are also echoes of Crypto in the suspicions swirling around modern companies with alleged links to foreign governments, including the Russian anti-virus firm Kaspersky, a texting app tied to the United Arab Emirates and the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei.
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Concerning "suspicions swirling around modern companies" (as ORAC put it) there is sometimes too high level of paranoia. Take e.g. Microsoft with its Windows OS. Everybody knows that MS cooperates with all "special services". And no need for snowdens to make it clear. But does it mean that concerned users should throw their PCs away? Definitely not.
E.g., some years ago in Russia, MS agreed to submit source code of some of its s/w products. Codes were inspected, found safe and got certificates from some governmental authority. Thus, those users who justified that they were not able to quickly migrate to a Linux-based OS (that had much "stronger" certificate) were allowed to keep using MS stuff for some years. Of course, no updates allowed, a checksum should be the same as on the certificate.
AFAIK, Kaspersky also suggested to submit source code to whoever in the US when the order to ban its AV was in preparation. It is understandable that regular (say, daily) updates of the virus database is essential for this kind of products, but for "appropriate" US services it did not look like a big work to instantly check every update as any patch is just about tens KB is size. But anyway Kasper was sent to hell. I don't like this company, but got a feeling it was treated not properly.
Some years ago one of my acquaintances in Sweden told me that the US DoD rejected to buy his software (sharing No. 1 and 2 places in the world with a US company) even though he made all the source available and no frequent updates were necessary.
I don't think there is paranoia there in "services concerned" because "they know their stuff". Paranoia is spread in media. In reality it is rather nothing but commerce. OK, but then words such as "free market", "honest competition", etc. should be lined out.
Situation with hardware providers seems more difficult, as it is much harder to check every micro/nano bit and piece. The same for data circulating at OSI levels 1 and 2 in the communication equipment. Therefore, reservations concerning Huawei would be quite uneasy to take away even if they are innocent as angels (which I doubt).
E.g., some years ago in Russia, MS agreed to submit source code of some of its s/w products. Codes were inspected, found safe and got certificates from some governmental authority. Thus, those users who justified that they were not able to quickly migrate to a Linux-based OS (that had much "stronger" certificate) were allowed to keep using MS stuff for some years. Of course, no updates allowed, a checksum should be the same as on the certificate.
AFAIK, Kaspersky also suggested to submit source code to whoever in the US when the order to ban its AV was in preparation. It is understandable that regular (say, daily) updates of the virus database is essential for this kind of products, but for "appropriate" US services it did not look like a big work to instantly check every update as any patch is just about tens KB is size. But anyway Kasper was sent to hell. I don't like this company, but got a feeling it was treated not properly.
Some years ago one of my acquaintances in Sweden told me that the US DoD rejected to buy his software (sharing No. 1 and 2 places in the world with a US company) even though he made all the source available and no frequent updates were necessary.
I don't think there is paranoia there in "services concerned" because "they know their stuff". Paranoia is spread in media. In reality it is rather nothing but commerce. OK, but then words such as "free market", "honest competition", etc. should be lined out.
Situation with hardware providers seems more difficult, as it is much harder to check every micro/nano bit and piece. The same for data circulating at OSI levels 1 and 2 in the communication equipment. Therefore, reservations concerning Huawei would be quite uneasy to take away even if they are innocent as angels (which I doubt).
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Situation with hardware providers seems more difficult, as it is much harder to check every micro/nano bit and piece. The same for data circulating at OSI levels 1 and 2 in the communication equipment. Therefore, reservations concerning Huawei would be quite uneasy to take away even if they are innocent as angels (which I doubt).
Those were the days. Today we have cloud computing with endless data transmissions to third parties. Some guys listen in some guys store it.
and there are Exabytes of data sloshing around - far too much for anyone to chase it all................
best not to go down that route ......................
Not quite sure why the Crypto AG thing has surfaced again.
This has been known about for at least a decade.
James Bamford wrote about it in his books on the NSA.
Old news.
This has been known about for at least a decade.
James Bamford wrote about it in his books on the NSA.
Old news.
Nah - bollocks.
Plenty of detail in Bamford's books.
Every diplomatic mission was using Crypto AG's machines.
And No Such Agency was reading eeevvveerrything.
Crypto AG lied like flatfish at the time saying it weren't so.
Read Body of Secrets and The Puzzle Palace.
And there's irony in current US paranoia about the Chinese.
Given that Fort Meade actually co-operated with the Chinese to spy on the Russians; not widely known.
Another great section in one of Bamford's books - talks about the NSA sigint trucks that travelled along the Sino-Russian border.
All fun and games...
Plenty of detail in Bamford's books.
Every diplomatic mission was using Crypto AG's machines.
And No Such Agency was reading eeevvveerrything.
Crypto AG lied like flatfish at the time saying it weren't so.
Read Body of Secrets and The Puzzle Palace.
And there's irony in current US paranoia about the Chinese.
Given that Fort Meade actually co-operated with the Chinese to spy on the Russians; not widely known.
Another great section in one of Bamford's books - talks about the NSA sigint trucks that travelled along the Sino-Russian border.
All fun and games...
Last edited by tartare; 17th Feb 2020 at 09:11.
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Nah - bollocks.
Plenty of detail in Bamford's books.
Every diplomatic mission was using Crypto AG's machines.
And No Such Agency was reading eeevvveerrything.
Crypto AG lied like flatfish at the time saying it weren't so.
Read Body of Secrets and The Puzzle Palace.
And there's irony in current US paranoia about the Chinese.
Given that Fort Meade actually co-operated with the Chinese to spy on the Russians; not widely known.
Another great section in one of Bamford's books - talks about the NSA sigint trucks that travelled along the Sino-Russian border.
All fun and games...
Plenty of detail in Bamford's books.
Every diplomatic mission was using Crypto AG's machines.
And No Such Agency was reading eeevvveerrything.
Crypto AG lied like flatfish at the time saying it weren't so.
Read Body of Secrets and The Puzzle Palace.
And there's irony in current US paranoia about the Chinese.
Given that Fort Meade actually co-operated with the Chinese to spy on the Russians; not widely known.
Another great section in one of Bamford's books - talks about the NSA sigint trucks that travelled along the Sino-Russian border.
All fun and games...
More interesting to me is how and why this is now hyped by news outlets (some of them quasi state owned). If only Bellingcat had it's finger in the pie as well, I would be sure that it's a campaign by the offenders themselves.
I'd highly recommend all of his books.
Bamford has quite extraordinary access to the NSA - and many contacts outside to balance what Fort Meade tells him.
Collectively, his writings chart the classified history of signals intelligence from the signing of UKUSA through to the Snowden era.
It's like reading a parallel history of international geopolitics from 1949 onwards - fascinating.
And as the Internet has grown, so have Five Eyes SIGINT partners wrapped themselves around it and inveigled their way into its furthest reaches, like a vine, as Snowden revealed.
Bamford has quite extraordinary access to the NSA - and many contacts outside to balance what Fort Meade tells him.
Collectively, his writings chart the classified history of signals intelligence from the signing of UKUSA through to the Snowden era.
It's like reading a parallel history of international geopolitics from 1949 onwards - fascinating.
And as the Internet has grown, so have Five Eyes SIGINT partners wrapped themselves around it and inveigled their way into its furthest reaches, like a vine, as Snowden revealed.
