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from the put-all-your-secrets-in-one-basket dept.
'The intelligence coup of the century'
In case of paywall...
CIA Secretly Owned Crypto, the Swiss Company That Ruled Global Spy Comms for Decades, Says Report
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.
For the most goodest security, use only one commercial crypto system. Trust it with all your secrets.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday February 12 2020, @04:34PM
I fall back on the old proverb: the tallest tree is the first cut down.
Luckily, crypto stacks, so you can use a very tall tree, plus a bush of your own devising, and when the big tree falls (and don't kid yourself, academics aren't the only ones - or the best resourced ones - chopping away...) that home grown fig leaf will actually provide more security than DES / TwoFish / whatever well trusted standards you have hung your hat on.
The problem in the article is that people just bought a solution off the shelf and trusted the buzzwords - and be sure the CIA knows all the right buzzwords to put on the shrink-wrap to appeal to their target population of paranoids.
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