It’s hard to exaggerate just how much the Crypto AG scandal has shaken Switzerland.
For decades, US and German intelligence used this Swiss company’s encoding devices to spy on other countries, and the revelations this week have provoked outrage.
From the Cold War into the 2000s, Crypto AG sold the devices to more than 120 governments worldwide. The machines were encrypted but it emerged this week that the CIA and Germany’s BND had rigged the devices so they could crack the codes and intercept thousands of messages.
Rumours had circulated in the past but now everybody knows.