We have all heard about how dangerous the Huawei Company is thanks to the use of 5G technology and in fact it is on the American blacklist as it is apparently capable of spying on everyone's communications. If we try to do a simple search on Bing for the keywords "Huawai 5G USA", more than 9 million results come up while on Google even 33 million, with Yandex they are "only" 28 million ... At the top of the list always appear the articles with the economic and spy war between the United States and China.
The Cambridge Analytica scandal is another indication of the importance of data and the continuous espionage exercised by everyone, States and industries, for the most varied purposes.
If we do the search with "Cambridge Analytica scandal" we get more modest numbers: with Bing we have about 1 million results, with Google we have about 1.2 million results, with Yandex instead even 2 million results.
If we do a search on "Swiss Crypto AG scandal", on Bing we have about 14 thousand results, on Google we have about 200 thousand results, on Yandex we have even 4 million results.
Now let's ask ourselves some questions: why these differences?
The answer is not simple and includes a mixture of technology, language used, interest in disseminating information from states and large companies and much, much more: basically what I'm saying is that search engines influence users. I don't think I've said anything strange up to now.
Let us now consider, just for a moment, the latest research carried out: Swiss Crypto AG scandal.
The scandal is recent. It was discovered and denounced publicly by the Washington Post and the ZDF as soon as February 11, 2020 (and this partly justifies the low number of referrals on Google and Bing) and is probably the biggest scandal related to Western espionage ... yet, what are the implications for Western governments?
To understand what we are talking about, perhaps it is necessary to take a step back. The Swiss company Crypto AG is a company that produced encryption devices that were considered safe since the 50s and until 2018, therefore for almost 70 years. The founder, Boris Hagelin, in the 50s made a verbal agreement with the CIA to sell its devices only to friendly countries, this to prevent the study and dissemination of the technology considered cutting edge.
In the 70s, the CIA and the German BND began to work together on Crypto AG's equipment, modifying it in order to more easily break codes and have easy access to messages. According to an article from the Salt DNA Italy too falls among the countries illegally spied on by the two agencies thanks to the "safe" devices of Crypto AG.
What does this mean in simple terms?
It means that the secret messages exchanged with the company's apparatuses were probably recorded and listened to by the USA and Germany, not to mention the closest allies, namely the famous "Five Eyes" countries: UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and USA.
What does this mean in terms of trust?
It means that nobody can be trusted, neither of the enemies nor of the allies. This is not to say that you have to break alliances or change alliances every breath of wind, it doesn't make any sense. I mean that a serious state, worthy of the name, must organize itself to have the capacity to produce or control the tools to be used for its own survival in wartime as in peacetime.. In the world we live in this means AI, Cyber, Data Analytics, Armaments, Research capabilities ...
Not being endowed with a strategic, technological, industrial or knowledge capacity means being dependent on others, and others do not always serve our interests ...
Some of our good politicians took an interest in it, perhaps asking for an investigation into it? I don't know, but I hope so ... in fact, "be allies" not it means being willing to accept any counterparty behavior towards us!
To learn more:
https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/politik/cryptoleaks-bnd-cia-operation-rub...
https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/politik/cryptoleaks-bnd-cia-operation-rub...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/world/national-security/cia...
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/11/crypto-ag-cia-bnd-german...
https://www.corrierecomunicazioni.it/cyber-security/crypto-ag-cyber-scan...
https://saltdna.com/news/how-governments-used-swiss-crypto-ag-encryption...
https://www.cryptomuseum.com/people/boris_hagelin.htm
https://uk.pcmag.com/cpus-components/124845/report-cia-used-swiss-firm-t...
https://www.agendadigitale.eu/sicurezza/privacy/crypto-ag-che-deve-inseg...
