Pakistan and India are among more than 120 countries in the world that bought encryption devices and software from the Central Intelligence Agency-owned company to keep the communications of spies, soldiers and diplomats secret.
According to a report published by the Washington Post, Swiss firm “Crypto AG” was secretly owned by the CIA and West German intelligence agencies.
The CIA and the National Security Agency spied on allies and adversaries alike through the Swiss firm, according to the report.
They rigged the devices that the countries used to break the encrypted messages.
In the early 1990s, the CIA bought the Germans’ stake after the BND (German spy agency) left the operations. The CIA sold off the company’s assets in 2018, according to the Washington Post.
The report said that Crypto AG’s equipment is still being used by more than a dozen countries in the world.
