Crypto AG
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Crypto Aktiengesellschaft (Crypto AG) is a Swiss company specialising in communications and information security. Based originally in Zug, the company has had a long history of manufacturing a wide variety of cipher devices.
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History
Crypto AG was founded by Boris Hagelin and was incorporated in 1959. The firm is the descendant firm of that founded by Arvid Gerhard Damm to manufacture cipher machines according to his 1919 Swedish patent. After Damm's death, and just before World War II (WWII), it came under the control of Boris Hagelin, an early investor, and during the War essentially operated in the US. After WWII, it was transferred from Sweden to Switzerland as a result of a planned Swedish government takeover of militarily important technology/contractors.
Machines
Accusations of rigged machines
Crypto AG has been accused of rigging their machines in collusion with intelligence agencies such as the United States National Security Agency (NSA), enabling such organisations to read the encrypted traffic produced by the machines. Crypto AG has dismissed these accusations as groundless.
See also
External links
- Crypto AG home page (http://www.crypto.ch/)
- "Crypto AG: The NSA's Trojan Whore?" (http://mediafilter.org/caq/cryptogate/) — accusations of collusion with the NSA
- Response from Crypto AG to allegations (http://www.crypto.ch/pages/htm/crypto/facts.htm)
- The story about Crypto AG (http://biphome.spray.se/laszlob/cryptoag/crypto_ag.htm)