Balto Sun Followup: Crypto AG a friend of Cypherpunks?

In an earlier posting, I summarized an article in the Baltimore
Sun about the Swiss company Crypto AG that makes encryption
machines for the world market. The newspaper ran a follow up
article today (12/15/95) that discussed a two page statement
issued by Crypto AG. Some of the quotes from the statement that
made it into the Baltimore Sun article are:

   "Pure Invention"
   "old hearsay"
    "The allegations are not new at all and just repeat tales
which date back 25 or more years"
    [Crypto AG] "has no political ambitions or claims."

My favorite detail, however, was the hint that the rumors are a
"well conceived ploy" to harrass a company that is making strong
crypto for independent countries. So maybe they're cypherpunks?

The rest of the Baltimore Sun article goes on to summarize why
the paper printed what it did. These include interviews with
apparently anonymous sources identified as "several former
Crypto engineers." These engineers told the Sun that they were
forced to make design changes by their boss based upon
"technical documents provided by mysterious visitors to the Zug
plant."

-Peter Wayner

If you care about this matter, you should dig up the original
article from the Baltimore Sun. $3.95. Dial 410-332 6962.

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

>>>>> "Peter" == Peter Wayner <pcw@access.digex.net> writes:

    Peter> My favorite detail, however, was the hint that the rumors
    Peter> are a "well conceived ploy" to harrass a company that is
    Peter> making strong crypto for independent countries. So maybe
    Peter> they're cypherpunks?

Nope. They're owned by the Federal Republic of Germany. They deliver
all cryptographic equipment for all TLAs in Germany. They're about as
much cypherpunks as the NSA is.

Andreas


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