Welcome to Axis Prerata, where we take just 10 minutes to get you smarter on the collision of tech, business, and politics.

I'm Dan Per Mac. On today's show, big tech under a new microscope and a requiem for the Yang Gang.

But first, the intelligence coup of the century. The Washington Post yesterday published

a bombshell report about how a surveillance company used by dozens of countries for decades

was secretly owned by the CIA. The upshot here should be obvious. The U.S. was listening

to conversations from allies and enemies alike in what might be the largest ever heist of government secrets.

The company in question was called Crypto AG and began life as a Swiss maker of code breaking machines

for the U.S. during World War II.

But in 1970, it was surreptitiously acquired by the CIA and West German intelligence,

and the agencies reportedly controlled almost all of

crypto's operations, including things like hiring and tech design and sales targets.

But again, this was not a publicly known arrangement, and even many of crypto's own employees

had no idea who was really paying their checks.

In 1993, German intelligence sold its stake to the CIA, which continued to utilize

crypto AG until selling off its assets in 2018. But during that middle ground, the U.S. used similar

techniques to spy on Germany, including a hack of Angela Merkel's phone. Two other things to know.

Neither China nor Russia were ever customers of crypto AG, likely due to suspicions over its ties to the U.S.

But the company did manage to collect tons of information between its other clients and Chinese and Russian officials.

Second, ending crypto wasn't really about the U.S. no longer thirsting for Intel so much as it was the rise of

encrypted communications that made crypto's techniques largely obsolete. The bottom line,

this was a whole new level of spy games. In 15 seconds, we'll go deeper with Greg Miller,

who wrote the Washington Post story in collaboration with German reporter Peter Mueller.

...