Uncle Sam Is Watching You: How US Heard India’s Confidential Talks

Crypto AG gained popularity after the US used its services in World War II While most of these countries, including India, had trusted the encryption service of this information security company, a report by The Washington Post and a German public broadcaster ZDF has now revealed that Crypto AG was sharing confidential information with the intelligence agency of the US — the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Founded by Boris Hagelin, Crypto AG gained popularity after it bagged the project to secure communications of the US during World War II. Besides India, Crypto AG was also the preferred company for governments sitting in Iran, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and even the Vatican for securing their confidential communications. According to the media report, the CIA had a confidential partnership with West German intelligence Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) for the Crypto AG deal. After the case came to light, the Switzerland government had now said that it has set up an investigation to find out the links of Crypto AG with the US and German-based intelligence agencies. While the media report hasn’t given any details of CIA listening to Indian classified communications, it has cited other examples of operations of Libya, Iran, and other South American countries. Interestingly, four other countries — Israel, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom — were reportedly also aware of this highly classified partnership between the CIA and Crypto. After decades of dominance in the information security segment, Crypto AG went for liquidation in 2018. At that time, it was bought by two other companies: CyOne Securities and Crypto International.