Security News > 2020 > February > CIA Secretly Owned Swiss Encryption Firm for Years: Reports

Starting in the 1970s and continuing through the 1990s, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and the German BND intelligence service secretly controlled the majority of the Swiss firm Crypto AG, giving the two agencies access to the company's communication equipment, which was used around the world for top-secret government messages, according to the reports.

A former Crypto AG worker told Switzerland's SRF television station that he would find two sets of encryption algorithms within the company's devices.

In a 1977 CIA memo published by the National Security Archives, U.S. officials noted that several of the Operation Condor countries received CX52 encrypted communication machines from Crypto AG, but they didn't know that the NSA has already secretly tested these devices prior to sale.

The Washington Post and the German TV station report that at the end of the Cold War, in 1995, the CIA bought out the German BND intelligence service's share in Crypto AG for about $17 million, and the U.S. continued to control the company until 2018, when it was liquidated and sold.

The news reports about the relationship between the CIA and Crypto AG come at a time when the U.S. government is not only warning about possible cyber espionage by other countries, but also pushing for domestic law enforcement agencies to have access to encrypted communications.

News URL

https://www.inforisktoday.com/cia-secretly-owned-swiss-encryption-firm-for-years-reports-a-13713