Crypto AG
Encyclopedia
Crypto AG
is a Swiss company specialising in communications and information security. With headquarters in steinhausen
, the company is a long-established manufacturer of encryption
machines and a wide variety of cipher devices. The company has about 230 employees, has offices in Abidjan
, Abu Dhabi
, Buenos Aires
, Kuala Lumpur
, Muscat
, Selsdon
and Steinhausen
, and does business throughout the world.
. Originally called AB Cryptoteknik and founded by Arvid Gerhard Damm
in Stockholm
in 1920, the firm manufactured the C-36 mechanical cryptograph machine that Damm had patented. After Damm's death, and just before World War II
, Cryptoteknik came under the control of Boris Hagelin, an early investor, and during the War essentially operated in the United States
, where 140,000 units were made under licence as C-38 (see M-209
). In the early 1950s, it was transferred from Stockholm to Zug as a result of a planned Swedish government nationalisation of militarily important technology/contractors, and was incorporated in Switzerland
in 1952.
Crypto AG has a sister company, InfoGuard AG.
Crypto AG has Layer 1,2,3 devices at very high speed such as 10 Gbit/s with unnoticeable delays. The company has radio, ethernet, STM, GSM, phone and fax encryption systems in its portfolio.
(BND) and the United States National Security Agency
(NSA), enabling such organisations to read the encrypted traffic produced by the machines. Suspicions of this collusion were aroused in 1986 following US president Ronald Reagan
's announcement on national television that, through interception of diplomatic communications between Tripoli
and the Libyan embassy in East Berlin
, he had irrefutable evidence that Muammar al-Gaddafi
of Libya
was behind the 1986 Berlin discotheque bombing
in which two US service personnel were killed and another fifty injured. President Reagan then ordered the bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi
in retaliation. There is no conclusive evidence that there was an intercepted Libyan message.
Further evidence suggesting that the Crypto AG machines were compromised was revealed after the assassination of former Iranian Prime Minister Shahpour Bakhtiar in 1991. On August 7, 1991, one day before Bakhtiar's body was discovered, the Iranian Intelligence Service transmitted a coded message to Iranian embassies, inquiring "Is Bakhtiar dead?" Western governments were able to decipher this transmission, causing Iranian suspicion to fall upon their Crypto AG equipment.
The Iranian government then arrested Crypto AG's top salesman, Hans Buehler, in March 1992 in Tehran
. It accused Buehler of leaking their encryption codes to Western intelligence. Buehler was interrogated for nine months but, being completely unaware of any flaw in the machines, was released in January 1993 after Crypto AG paid a $1m ransom to Iran
. Soon after Buehler's release Crypto AG dismissed him and charged him the $1m. Swiss media and the German magazine Der Spiegel
took up his case in 1994, pursuing the question of whether Crypto's machines had in fact been rigged by Western intelligence.
Crypto AG rejected these accusations as "pure invention", asserting in a press release that "in March 1994, the Swiss Federal Prosecutor's Office initiated a wide-ranging preliminary investigation against Crypto AG, which was completed in 1997. The accusations regarding influence by third-parties or manipulations, which had been repeatedly raised in the media, proved to be without foundation.". Subsequent commentators are unmoved by this denial, stating that it is likely that Crypto AG products were indeed rigged.
Aktiengesellschaft
Aktiengesellschaft is a German term that refers to a corporation that is limited by shares, i.e. owned by shareholders, and may be traded on a stock market. The term is used in Germany, Austria and Switzerland...
is a Swiss company specialising in communications and information security. With headquarters in steinhausen
Steinhausen
Steinhausen may refer to*Steinhausen an der Rottum, Baden-Württemberg, Germany*Steinhausen, a settlement and the district capital of Steinhausen Constituency, Namibia*Steinhausen, Canton Zug, Switzerland...
, the company is a long-established manufacturer of encryption
Encryption
In cryptography, encryption is the process of transforming information using an algorithm to make it unreadable to anyone except those possessing special knowledge, usually referred to as a key. The result of the process is encrypted information...
machines and a wide variety of cipher devices. The company has about 230 employees, has offices in Abidjan
Abidjan
Abidjan is the economic and former official capital of Côte d'Ivoire, while the current capital is Yamoussoukro. it was the largest city in the nation and the third-largest French-speaking city in the world, after Paris, and Kinshasa but before Montreal...
, Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi , literally Father of Gazelle, is the capital and the second largest city of the United Arab Emirates in terms of population and the largest of the seven member emirates of the United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi lies on a T-shaped island jutting into the Persian Gulf from the central western...
, Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur is the capital and the second largest city in Malaysia by population. The city proper, making up an area of , has a population of 1.4 million as of 2010. Greater Kuala Lumpur, also known as the Klang Valley, is an urban agglomeration of 7.2 million...
, Muscat
Muscat, Oman
Muscat is the capital of Oman. It is also the seat of government and largest city in the Governorate of Muscat. As of 2008, the population of the Muscat metropolitan area was 1,090,797. The metropolitan area spans approximately and includes six provinces called wilayats...
, Selsdon
Selsdon
Selsdon is an area located in the southern suburbs of the London Borough of Croydon. The suburb was developed during the inter-war period during the 1920s and 1930s, and is remarkable for its many Art Deco houses...
and Steinhausen
Steinhausen
Steinhausen may refer to*Steinhausen an der Rottum, Baden-Württemberg, Germany*Steinhausen, a settlement and the district capital of Steinhausen Constituency, Namibia*Steinhausen, Canton Zug, Switzerland...
, and does business throughout the world.
History
Crypto AG was established in Bern by Russian-born Swede, Boris HagelinBoris Hagelin
Boris Caesar Wilhelm Hagelin was a Swedish businessman and inventor of encryption machines.Born of Swedish parents in the Caucasus , Hagelin attended Lundsberg boarding school and later studied mechanical engineering at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, graduating in 1914...
. Originally called AB Cryptoteknik and founded by Arvid Gerhard Damm
Arvid Gerhard Damm
Arvid Gerhard Damm was a Swedish engineer and inventor. He designed a number of cipher machines, and was one of the early inventors of the wired rotor principle for machine encipherment. His company, AB Cryptograph, was a predecessor of Crypto AG....
in Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
in 1920, the firm manufactured the C-36 mechanical cryptograph machine that Damm had patented. After Damm's death, and just before World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Cryptoteknik came under the control of Boris Hagelin, an early investor, and during the War essentially operated in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, where 140,000 units were made under licence as C-38 (see M-209
M-209
In cryptography, the M-209, designated CSP-1500 by the Navy is a portable, mechanical cipher machine used by the US military primarily in World War II, though it remained in active use through the Korean War...
). In the early 1950s, it was transferred from Stockholm to Zug as a result of a planned Swedish government nationalisation of militarily important technology/contractors, and was incorporated in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
in 1952.
Crypto AG has a sister company, InfoGuard AG.
Crypto AG has Layer 1,2,3 devices at very high speed such as 10 Gbit/s with unnoticeable delays. The company has radio, ethernet, STM, GSM, phone and fax encryption systems in its portfolio.
Back-doored machines
Crypto AG has been accused of rigging its machines in collusion with intelligence agencies such as the German BundesnachrichtendienstBundesnachrichtendienst
The Bundesnachrichtendienst [ˌbʊndəsˈnaːχʁɪçtnˌdiːnst] is the foreign intelligence agency of Germany, directly subordinated to the Chancellor's Office. Its headquarters are in Pullach near Munich, and Berlin . The BND has 300 locations in Germany and foreign countries...
(BND) and the United States National Security Agency
National Security Agency
The National Security Agency/Central Security Service is a cryptologic intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the collection and analysis of foreign communications and foreign signals intelligence, as well as protecting U.S...
(NSA), enabling such organisations to read the encrypted traffic produced by the machines. Suspicions of this collusion were aroused in 1986 following US president Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
's announcement on national television that, through interception of diplomatic communications between Tripoli
Tripoli
Tripoli is the capital and largest city in Libya. It is also known as Western Tripoli , to distinguish it from Tripoli, Lebanon. It is affectionately called The Mermaid of the Mediterranean , describing its turquoise waters and its whitewashed buildings. Tripoli is a Greek name that means "Three...
and the Libyan embassy in East Berlin
East Berlin
East Berlin was the name given to the eastern part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. It consisted of the Soviet sector of Berlin that was established in 1945. The American, British and French sectors became West Berlin, a part strongly associated with West Germany but a free city...
, he had irrefutable evidence that Muammar al-Gaddafi
Muammar al-Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar Gaddafi or "September 1942" 20 October 2011), commonly known as Muammar Gaddafi or Colonel Gaddafi, was the official ruler of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then the "Brother Leader" of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011.He seized power in a...
of Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
was behind the 1986 Berlin discotheque bombing
1986 Berlin discotheque bombing
The 1986 Berlin discotheque bombing was a terrorist attack on the La Belle discothèque in West Berlin, Germany, an entertainment venue that was commonly frequented by United States soldiers...
in which two US service personnel were killed and another fifty injured. President Reagan then ordered the bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi
Benghazi
Benghazi is the second largest city in Libya, the main city of the Cyrenaica region , and the former provisional capital of the National Transitional Council. The wider metropolitan area is also a district of Libya...
in retaliation. There is no conclusive evidence that there was an intercepted Libyan message.
Further evidence suggesting that the Crypto AG machines were compromised was revealed after the assassination of former Iranian Prime Minister Shahpour Bakhtiar in 1991. On August 7, 1991, one day before Bakhtiar's body was discovered, the Iranian Intelligence Service transmitted a coded message to Iranian embassies, inquiring "Is Bakhtiar dead?" Western governments were able to decipher this transmission, causing Iranian suspicion to fall upon their Crypto AG equipment.
The Iranian government then arrested Crypto AG's top salesman, Hans Buehler, in March 1992 in Tehran
Tehran
Tehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...
. It accused Buehler of leaking their encryption codes to Western intelligence. Buehler was interrogated for nine months but, being completely unaware of any flaw in the machines, was released in January 1993 after Crypto AG paid a $1m ransom to Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
. Soon after Buehler's release Crypto AG dismissed him and charged him the $1m. Swiss media and the German magazine Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. It is one of Europe's largest publications of its kind, with a weekly circulation of more than one million.-Overview:...
took up his case in 1994, pursuing the question of whether Crypto's machines had in fact been rigged by Western intelligence.
Crypto AG rejected these accusations as "pure invention", asserting in a press release that "in March 1994, the Swiss Federal Prosecutor's Office initiated a wide-ranging preliminary investigation against Crypto AG, which was completed in 1997. The accusations regarding influence by third-parties or manipulations, which had been repeatedly raised in the media, proved to be without foundation.". Subsequent commentators are unmoved by this denial, stating that it is likely that Crypto AG products were indeed rigged.