Crypto AG
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| Industry | Cryptography |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1952 |
| Founder | Boris Hagelin |
| Headquarters | Steinhausen (Canton of Zug), Switzerland |
| Website | www.crypto.ch |
Crypto AG is a Swiss company specialising in communications and information security. With headquarters in Steinhausen, the company is a long-established manufacturer of encryption machines and a wide variety of cipher devices.
The company has about 230 employees, has offices in Abidjan, Abu Dhabi, Buenos Aires, Kuala Lumpur, Muscat, Selsdon and Steinhausen, and does business throughout the world. The owner(s) of Crypto AG are unknown and they hold their ownership through bearer shares.
The company has been criticised for selling backdoored products to benefit the American and British national signals intelligence agencies, the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), respectively.
Crypto AG was established in Switzerland by the Russian-born Swede, Boris Hagelin. Originally called AB Cryptoteknik and founded by Arvid Gerhard Damm in in 1920, the firm manufactured the C-36 mechanical cryptograph machine that Damm had patented. After Damm's death, and just before the Second World War, Cryptoteknik came under the control of Boris Hagelin, an early investor, and during the War essentially operated in the United States, where 140,000 units were made under licence as C-38 (see M-209). In the early 1950s, it was transferred from Stockholm to Steinhausen as a result of a planned Swedish government nationalisation of militarily important technology contractors, and was incorporated in Switzerland in 1952.
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Wikipedia