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| Crypto bombshell |
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| tooki:
...well, if you can consider it a bombshell after decades of clear signs. CIA documents got out documenting decades of secret CIA and BND ownership of Crypto AG, once one of the world’s leading vendors of military/government encryption gear. Through this ownership, the CIA was able to get Crypto AG encryption products sold to all but a small handful of countries to use NSA-designed encryption that was easy to break. (The selected few, which included USA, Germany, Switzerland, and the UK, got the versions that actually met the claimed security standards.) This deception happened for decades, ending only in 2018, when the company was liquidated following its sale from the CIA. (Without direct cash payments from the CIA, the company wasn’t actually profitable!) Of the three news organizations involved in analyzing and publishing the story, the Washington Post, ZDF, and SRF, the first has by far the most detailed piece so far: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/world/national-security/cia-crypto-encryption-machines-espionage/ For those in Switzerland, SRF is broadcasting its big report tonight at 8pm in Rundschau. This whole debacle having taken place here, they have better access to ex-employees than the other organizations. |
| ebastler:
The new owners of former Crypto AG, now renamed Crypto International Group, are really scrambling to let everybody know that they are a "completely different company"... Well, that's technically true. They just acquired the brand name and the assets, not the company shell, it seems. ::) https://www.crypto.ch/en |
| iMo:
What is so special with the article? I see nothing new in there.. Who will buy a crypto stuff from an XYZ company and think it is safe? Because you got Rolex watch from the sales guy? A joke.. |
| ebastler:
Well, Crypto AG was the name in the business for decades -- until strong cryptography algorithms became more well-published, and widely available microprocessors became powerful enough to implement them. They go back to Hagelin in the 1930s, and have delivered cryptography equipment to many (many!) governments and commercial customers. |
| SiliconWizard:
--- Quote from: ebastler on February 12, 2020, 06:11:27 pm ---Well, Crypto AG was the name in the business for decades -- until strong cryptography algorithms became more well-published, and widely available microprocessors became powerful enough to implement them. They go back to Hagelin in the 1930s, and have delivered cryptography equipment to many (many!) governments and commercial customers. --- End quote --- Yeah. Now even without knowing the ties with the CIA, for any country to deal with a commercial company for solutions that can have an impact on national security is madness. And when this company is not even based in your own country, and it deals with many other countries for similar purposes, it's not just madness, it's pretty dumb. How is it even possible to assume there would never be any influence from one of the big "customers", never any "leak", and how is it possible to trust any company THAT much to begin with? |
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