meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
The Rest Is Classified

96. Selling The World's Secrets: Is The CIA Reading Your Messages? (Ep 1)

The Rest Is Classified

Goalhanger

History

4.6732 Ratings

🗓️ 3 November 2025

⏱️ 40 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Over the past seventy-five years, the United States has developed an insatiable appetite for global surveillance. The stories exposed by Edward Snowden in 2013 were only the tip of the mountain: the CIA had been spying on the world for decades. For more than half a century, a Swiss‑based firm called Crypto AG built encryption machines and sold them to governments around the world. But what its customers didn’t know was that the firm was secretly owned and controlled by the CIA. This is a story of deception, code breaking and the invisible ear listening into the world's secrets. Listen as David and Gordon delve into the recently exposed story of Crypto AG and how the CIA, and their German counterparts, pulled off the intelligence coup of the twentieth century. ------------------- Join The Declassified Club: Start your free trial at ⁠⁠therestisclassified.com⁠⁠ - go deeper into the world of espionage with exclusive Q&As, interviews with top intelligence insiders, quarterly livestreams, ad-free listening, early access to episodes and live show tickets, and weekly deep dives into original spy stories. Members also get curated reading lists, special book discounts, prize draws, and access to our private chat community. To sign up to the free newsletter, go to: ⁠⁠https://mailchi.mp/goalhanger.com/tric-free-newsletter-sign-up⁠ ⁠ ------------------- Order a signed edition of Gordon's latest book, The Spy in the Archive, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠via this link.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Order a signed edition of David's latest book, The Seventh Floor, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠via this link.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ------------------- Email: [email protected] Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@triclassified⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Social Producer: Emma Jackson Producer: Becki Hills Head of History: Dom Johnson Exec Producer: Tony Pastor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

For exclusive interviews, bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to series,

0:09.0

first look at live show tickets, a weekly newsletter, and discounted books,

0:13.1

join the Declassified Club at the rest is classified.com.

0:17.3

Music Welcome to the rest is classified.

0:25.6

I'm Gordon Carrera and I'm David McCloskey.

0:28.6

David, have you ever wondered if your phone might be spying on you?

0:32.6

I have occasionally wondered if my phone is spying on me, Gordon.

0:35.6

I would say more so after reading the

0:38.9

outline that you put together for the next few episodes for the story we're going to talk about,

0:43.2

which is all about technology being rigged to spy on its users, on the poor people who have paid

0:50.8

for it. And it makes me think that like like so many of these episodes that we do,

0:56.2

that deal with the intersection of spying and technology, that we should all get rid of our phones

1:03.2

and computers and put the tinfoil hats on and shut the doors and disconnect. And hide. Yeah, I think there's something to that because if you are already a little bit

1:14.3

worried about your tech, then this episode and the next one might get you even more worried.

1:20.5

Because, yeah, tech companies are always kind of promising they will offer you security

1:25.3

from your phone and your messaging.

1:28.0

But what if a spy agency actually secretly owned the company that made the devices that

1:35.4

promised you security?

1:37.3

I mean, that is the slightly crazy story we're telling today.

1:41.1

The story of a company called Crypto AG, and the way and the crazy

1:46.4

operation used to effectively spy on all its customers.

1:50.9

We did the series on Oleg Gordievsky, and I think agreed that he was maybe the most

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Goalhanger, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Goalhanger and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.