The actual title of the article is "Swiss machines 'used to spy on governments for decades'." The title on HN currently is against the HN policy. Also there is

The actual title of the article is "Swiss machines 'used to spy on governments for decades'." The title on HN currently is against the HN policy. Also there is a washingtonpost.com original, where BBC is only talking about it, and the original was extensively commented on HN recently: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22297963 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22297963 To those who earlier read about the company (even in Wikipedia!) before the article appeared the first part of that long article had almost no big surprises, describing more the general context. The "new" news are the BND involvement and the actual partial ownership by the CIA, but all that lacks the juicy details. The second part, having more details, is actually very interesting, the things that appear like in the movies. For example, an interesting coincidence about what happened to the son of the company's founder: "Hagelin had once hoped to turn control over to his son, Bo. But U.S. intelligence officials regarded him as a “wild card” and worked to conceal the partnership from him. Bo Hagelin was killed in a car crash on Washington’s Beltway in 1970. There were no indications of foul play." Or: "Each year, the CIA and BND split any profits Crypto had made, according to the German history, which says the BND handled the accounting and delivered the cash owed to the CIA in an underground parking garage." Or: "The Germans were taken aback by the Americans’ willingness to spy on all but its closest allies, with targets including NATO members Spain, Greece, Turkey and Italy."