CRYPTO AG, THE MASTERPIECE OF THE CIA AND THE GERMAN SECRET SERVICES
From the 1950s to 2018, Crypto AG provided the technology to encrypt conversations to governments around the world . In the immediate aftermath of the war, the company, taking advantage of its Swiss nationality, had managed to position itself as a reliable supplier in a world still divided into factions.
Crypto AG soon built a solid reputation, reaching 120
governments with its products, too bad that its purpose was not only profit,
but also the collection of information , for a spy story worthy of the best
James Bond film.
Make money by stealing the information of enemies and allies
Cypto AG's technology to encrypt conversations was used by
secret services and officials in countries such as Iran and Libya. They were
used by the Vatican secretariat of state, but also by major NATO powers,
including Italy. What no one knew is that Crypto AG was actually secretly
controlled by the CIA and the BND , the West German secret services. For years
120 governments have used communication encryption tools specially created to
be easily bypassed by America, which has used this privileged position to its
advantage at some of the most critical moments in its history.
If this story emerged it is due to the Washington Post,
which had access to a 96-page CIA dossier on the history ofOperation Rubicon ,
as it was dubbed by the Americans. A story that should only have been partially
declassified, but things turned out differently.
The ties between the US government and the company have
roots in World War II, when the future founder of Crypto AG, Boris Hagelin,
fled to the United States in 1940. Hagelin was of Russian descent, but had been
living in Sweden for years to escape. to the Soviets. He had to flee once again
when the Nazis entered Scandinavia.
Hagelin was already an inventor at the time and had managed
to create an extremely portable communications encryption machine, the C-209.
It soon became an ordinance in every US Army regiment. Not the best that could
be done, especially considering that the Axis had been using the Enigma system
for some time.
Yet he did his duty: although the communications could be
decrypted in a few hours, the C-209 was used exclusively for lightning
communications in the field , making it useless to even attempt to decipher the
message.
After the war, according to the Washington Post, Hagelin
returns to Europe with a small fortune accumulated thanks to his service for
the United States of America.
Established Crypto AG, shortly thereafter he built an
encryption machine that was much more robust than the C-209. This is where
Americans' interest in the company arises, initially seen as a possible threat.
The USA, taking advantage of Hagelin's friendship with the
father of cryptography William Friedman, then manages to convince the Crypto AG
to sell its machines exclusively to allied states, cutting the ties with
hostile governments. As we know now, the agreement soon took another turn .
In 1960, the CIA began filling Hagelin's company with money,
but this time the prayer was to start selling encryption technology to all
governments, including those that had not signed up to the Atlantic pact.
Shortly thereafter, the Germans also joined the game, and the list of Crypto
AG's customers grew year by year. Thus was born what the CIA, certainly not
sinful of modesty, describes as " the espionage operation of the century
". " Governments paid big money to the United States and West Germany
to get their most secret conversations read by at least two foreign countries»,
Reads the CIA dossier. According to the Washington Post, as early as 1970, the
CIA and the NSA directly controlled every aspect of Crypto AG, which has now
become a fully-fledged puppet company.
The only missing piece is that neither China nor Russia were
ever clients of Crypto AG, effectively making Operation Rubicon imperfect.
" They both smelled something, " writes the newspaper. However, there
was no lack of scenarios where the ability to spy on the conversations of
opponents was crucial for the Americans. The Washington Post reports that as
all these governments used the technology of the Swiss company, the US was able
to spy on Iranian officials in the midst of the hostage crisis, the Argentines
during the Falklands War (for the benefit of Thatcher's friendly government). ,
and the Libyans shortly after the Berlin massacre of 1986.
At least until the 1980s,40% of confidential communications
were encrypted using proprietary technologies of Crypto AG . Which is another
way of saying " 40% of confidential communications were actually not
confidential at all ". At least for the Americans and the Germans.
The element worth pointing out once again is that all of
this was happening as Crypto AG was making tens of millions of dollars annually
which were then split equally between the CIA and German intelligence. The
Washington Post reports that the Germans at some point even began to view
Crypto AG as an important source of funding for their covert operations, to the
point that the CIA had to intervene often to remind them that Operation Rubicon
was a ' espionage initiative and not a money making machine.
All the products of Crypto AG, specifies the Washington
Post, were also made in a safe version without the exploit. This was used by
the Americans and allied governments. However, it is certain that America used
its position within the company to spy on friendly countries as well, such as
Italy, Greece, Spain and Turkey. Italy in 1981 was included in the list of the
most important customers of the company controlled by the CIA, in the company
of Saudi Arabia, Iran, Indonesia, Iraq, Libya, Jordan and South Korea.
The decision of the Americans to also deceive friendly
governments led Germany to withdraw from the agreement, for fear that relations
with the allies could be compromised if the deal went public. Germany sold its
shares in Crypto AG in 1998, while the CIA would continue to control the
company until 2018, when it was sold to two other companies.
But did the Swiss know?
The CIA and BND wanted to conduct their operations in such a
way that the company's employees did their part without suspicion of any kind.
Precisely for this reasons, it is difficult to reconstruct the responsibilities
of the parties involved.
" We at Crypto International have never had any deal
with the CIA or the BND, if what you are telling me is true then I feel
betrayed, my family feels betrayed, and I imagine there will be many employees
and many customers who they will feel betrayed in their turn . "
There were also those who had sensed that there could be
something wrong, such as Mengia Caflisch, a former employee of Crypto AG who
revealed to the Washington Post that she had always considered the company's
algorithms very suspicious . Caflish would have tried to insert an algorithm of
its own invention into the machines that would have risked making
communications virtually indecipherable. It was discovered and the algorithm
was replaced with the original version.
In recent days, the Swiss government has opened an
investigation to verify the role of American and German agencies and a possible
connivance between Swiss officials and the Rubicon operation. Furthermore,
Crypto International, the company that currently owns the brand and part of the
assets of the original company, has seen its license revoked to export its
products.
The Washington Post argues that it is absolutely clear from
the CIA documents that officials have known about Operation Rubicon for
decades.
" What dishearten me is that you think you've done a
good job, you've created something safe, and then realize you've devoted your
entire working life to scamming your customers."said Juerg Spoerdnli, an
electronic engineer who worked for Crypto AG for 16 years. Crypto AG
products are currently still used by at least a dozen
countries around the world, although Crypto AG was liquidated two years ago. ,
and all of its assets taken over by CyOne Security and Crypto International
Both companies claim that there was never any link between them and the CIA.
