US intelligence agencies have been intercepting communications as ghost companies for decades?

It turned out that a company called Crypto AG, an international cryptographic machine manufacturer based in Switzerland, was operated by the CIA, a US spy agency, and BND, the Federal Intelligence Service, a German spy agency, and was eavesdropping on communications using cryptographic machines.

Crypto AG is a cryptographic machine manufacturer founded in 1920 and was purchased in 1925 by Boris Hagelin, a Russian-born Swedish man. When World War II began, Hagelin moved to Switzerland, a neutral country, and expanded the company’s scale by selling 140,000 high-performance portable encryption machines to the US military. The Swiss government has initiated an investigation on February 11, 2020, alleging that the manufacturer of the cryptographic machine based in Zug, Switzerland is allowing intelligence agencies to eavesdrop on foreign communications through cryptographic machines operated by the CIA and BND. Announced. According to foreign media reports, Crypto AG not only allowed the CIA or BND to eavesdrop on foreign communications through backdoors installed in its cryptographic machines, but also received some of the profits from selling cryptographic machines.

The CIA and BND are said to have dominated almost all of Crypto AG’s tasks, such as hiring employees, designing cryptographic technology, and selling cryptographic equipment, from around 1970. The Soviet Union and China, which were hostile to the United States during the Cold War, did not purchase Crypto AG cryptographic machines, but more than 100 countries, including Iran, India, Pakistan, Latin American military regimes, and the Vatican, purchased Crypto AG cryptographic machines.

In addition, there were cases where government agencies other than the United States and Germany allowed access to the contents of communication using script encryption machines. At least four countries, including Israel, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Switzerland, were able to access some of the blocked communications.

By blocking communication by Crypto AG cryptographic machines, the United States monitored Iranian trends during the hostage incident at the U.S. Embassy in Iran in 1979, provided information about Argentine troops to the British side in the Falkland War, and the bombing at the Disco Berlin in 1986. It is reported that it has confirmed involvement of the Libyan authorities. It is said to have been described in the CIA report, saying that it was a success as an intelligence of the century.

Prior to this report, there were suspicions that Crypto AG was connected with Western intelligence agencies. In 1994, the script denied the allegations related to Crypto AG and intelligence agencies, saying that the script was an unbelievable conspiracy theory.

In addition, it is reported that in 2018 Crypto AG was split into two companies (Crypto International, CyOne Security AG) and the CIA also left Crypto AG. In response to the report, Crypto International claims that it is now owned by the new owner and has no relationship with the CIA or BND, while other companies say they are now focused on solutions to the Swiss public sector and are completely independent of Crypto AG.

The Swiss Ministry of Defense has informed the Cabinet of allegations of Crypto AG in November 2019 and admitted that an investigation could be conducted. The report on the series of allegations is scheduled to be filed in June 2020. Related information can be found here .