In 1952, a company called A.B. Crypto Technic, which was founded in Stockholm by a man who patented the C-36

mechanical cipher machine, which looked a bit like a fancy typewriter, and was used by governments and militaries to encrypt secret messages,

was re-established in Switzerland by a Russian-born Swede named Boris Hagelin, who was an early

investor in the company.

As part of that re-establishment, the company was renamed Crypto AG, and Hagelin's goal was

to start selling this device to the burgeoning U.S. military,

which was a goal he accomplished after relocating to the states in 1940,

right after Germany invaded Norway.

And his device made it into the hands of the U.S. Signal Intelligence Service codebreakers

for use during World War II.

The company ended up making 140,000 of these

encryption devices for American troops during that conflict, and their utility, and some of the

relationships Hagelin was able to build while in the U.S. got Crypto AG in with the new deputy commander of the CIA and the chief

cryptologist of the NSA.

Crypto AG moved back to Switzerland after World War II, mostly to avoid taxes, but Hagelin

kept in touch with folks at the top of US.S. spy agencies, playing ball with these

important clients, even to the point of agreeing not to sell his devices to some governments,

and agreeing to only sell older, easier to code-break devices to others.

In the mid-1970s, in the midst of the Cold War, Crypto AG was secretly purchased by the CIA and the West German intelligence agency, the BND, for $5.75 million.

The company continued to operate as if this purchase had not taken place and as if the company hadn't been selling

outdated cryptographic technology to some of their clients at the behest of U.S. agencies

for years. Thus, governments and militaries around the world continued to use crypto AG devices

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