The CIA secretly bought a company that sold encryption devices across the world. Then its spies sat back and listened.
U.S. and German intelligence agencies partnered on a scheme to dupe dozens of nations into buying rigged encryption systems — taking their money and stealing their secrets.
Since this comes out of WaPo, it's obviously a limited hangout but I still find it a strange admission. So the CIA fools the entire world for half a century, not even excepting the Soviets and China who never penetrated the operation but simply distrusted it. What's the purpose?
The reason I find it so bizarre, and part of why I think "They" are losing control, is that the first thought that came to my mind was, "If this was really all working so swimmingly after a couple of decades, I wonder if it occurred to anyone to franchise the same idea into something like a 'secret' kind of 'money' to which they had backdoor access?"
I'm guessing that no, that was not the intended messaging.