Special Report: ‘The intelligence coup of the century’: How the CIA was able to read the encrypted messages of allies and adversaries for decades

The CIA, in partnership with West German intelligence, secretly owned a Swiss company, Crypto AG, that sold rigged encryption devices to more than 120 countries, including Iran, Libya and Argentina as well as NATO allies Spain, Italy, Greece and Turkey. The decades-long arrangement, which was among the most closely guarded secrets of the Cold War, is laid bare in a classified, comprehensive CIA history of the operation obtained by The Washington Post and ZDF, German public television, in a joint reporting project. The CIA sold off the company's assets in 2018, but Crypto's products are still in use in more than a dozen countries around the world.

Democracy Dies in Darkness     Special Report Feb 11, 7:29 AM     'The intelligence coup of the century': How the CIA was able to read the encrypted messages of allies and adversaries for decades The CIA, in partnership with West German intelligence, secretly owned a Swiss company, Crypto AG, that sold rigged encryption devices to more than 120 countries, including Iran, Libya and Argentina as well as NATO allies Spain, Italy, Greece and Turkey. The decades-long arrangement, which was among the most closely guarded secrets of the Cold War, is laid bare in a classified, comprehensive CIA history of the operation obtained by The Washington Post and ZDF, German public television, in a joint reporting project. The CIA sold off the company's assets in 2018, but Crypto's products are still in use in more than a dozen countries around the world. Read more » Advertisement You received this email because you signed up for news alerts from The Washington Post. Manage my newsletters and alerts | Unsubscribe Privacy Policy | Help ©2020 The Washington Post, 1301 K St NW, Washington DC 20071