'The intelligence coup of the century'

[Newest Reality]

I think this qualifies as a rather big revelation, especially when you consider all the ramifications in retrospect. This is rather significant.

For decades, the CIA read the encrypted communications of allies and adversaries.

For more than half a century, governments all over the world trusted a single company to keep the communications of their spies, soldiers and diplomats secret.

The company, Crypto AG, got its first break with a contract to build code-making machines for U.S. troops during World War II. Flush with cash, it became a dominant maker of encryption devices for decades, navigating waves of technology from mechanical gears to electronic circuits and, finally, silicon chips and software.

The Swiss firm made millions of dollars selling equipment to more than 120 countries well into the 21st century. Its clients included Iran, military juntas in Latin America, nuclear rivals India and Pakistan, and even the Vatican.

But what none of its customers ever knew was that Crypto AG was secretly owned by the CIA in a highly classified partnership with West German intelligence. These spy agencies rigged the company’s devices so they could easily break the codes that countries used to send encrypted messages.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/world/national-security/cia-crypto-encryption-machines-espionage/

[SWBTATTReg]

1. I find this rather unbelievable. If I were an intelligence operation in one of these countries, ...

I certainly won't take the word of a company just because they said so (that their encrypted texts/etc. were unreadable). Either that, there a lot of people I would be firing right and left. Heck, I could create a encryption scheme that no one could break simply by doing a substitution encryption of some type, that will base encryptions on word of the week, and then next week, a different word, etc.

[Karadeniz]

2. Why is this being publicized?....I can't get the Post.

[MarcA]

3. It's what spy agencies usually do. n/t