Utterly fascinating. I'm writing this comment from the campus of the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, the same school were Crypto founder Hagelin graduated in 1914 as a mechanical engineer (according to one of the source documents).
Quoting Jeff here:
It's hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that some people are actually real life professional spies.
Because of the above, I got the exact same feeling. It got even crazier when the article covered Kjell-Ove Widman, the Swedish professor that saved MINERVA in 1979 & onwards. I can barely imagine the day he was asked to join this operation, it's not a career path anyone would foresee. He is now living in Stockholm. Who knows, I might have unwittingly seen him in a park somewhere.
The article brings a sense of the butterfly-effect: how one international persons' study & fascination of cryptography lead to a massive global surveillance program. Mind-boggling. I also like how the source documents links were interweaved with the Post narrative.
Gripping read about Crypto AG, secretly owned by CIA and BND.
“You think you do good work and you make something secure,” said Juerg Spoerndli, an electrical engineer who spent 16 years at Crypto. “And then you realize that you cheated these clients.”
Setting up clandestine operational headquarters in attics and taking cash payments in underground parking garages. It's hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that some people are actually real life professional spies. The details of this whole operation are fascinating.
Utterly fascinating. I'm writing this comment from the campus of the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, the same school were Crypto founder Hagelin graduated in 1914 as a mechanical engineer (according to one of the source documents).
Quoting Jeff here:
Because of the above, I got the exact same feeling. It got even crazier when the article covered Kjell-Ove Widman, the Swedish professor that saved MINERVA in 1979 & onwards. I can barely imagine the day he was asked to join this operation, it's not a career path anyone would foresee. He is now living in Stockholm. Who knows, I might have unwittingly seen him in a park somewhere.
The article brings a sense of the butterfly-effect: how one international persons' study & fascination of cryptography lead to a massive global surveillance program. Mind-boggling. I also like how the source documents links were interweaved with the Post narrative.
Gripping read about Crypto AG, secretly owned by CIA and BND.
“You think you do good work and you make something secure,” said Juerg Spoerndli, an electrical engineer who spent 16 years at Crypto. “And then you realize that you cheated these clients.”
Simply amazing...
Setting up clandestine operational headquarters in attics and taking cash payments in underground parking garages. It's hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that some people are actually real life professional spies. The details of this whole operation are fascinating.
The secret history of the CIA, BND, and Crypto AG, once the biggest cryptography company in the world.