[MAIL] The CIA were able to read the secret messages of allies and enemies for decades after buying a Swiss company that owned the machines responsible for encrypting their codes.A joint investigation published Tuesday by Germany's ZDF public broadcaster and The Washington Post shows that a firm called Crypto AG gave the CIA and West German spies access to the communications of more than 120 countries after making a multi-million dollar deal in the 1950s that Langley called the 'intelligence coup of the century'.
For more than 50 years, the CIA and West German intelligence helped rigged the devices sold to clients such as Iran, Latin American military juntas, India and Pakistan, so they could break their codes, steal secrets and take millions of dollars of their money.
Our counterproliferation mission and 'day job' surely can wait. We're interested in making money, lots of money.
Agents controlled Crypto AG's hiring decisions, helped design the technology to their liking and manipulated the algorithms so they could sabotage the channels international customers had trusted the firm to keep under wraps.