Linked List: February 23, 2020

Sunday, 23 February 2020

Morning Brew 

My thanks once again to Morning Brew for sponsoring DF last week. There’s a reason over 1 million people start their day with Morning Brew — the daily email that delivers the latest news from Wall Street to Silicon Valley. Business news doesn’t have to be dry and dense… make your mornings more enjoyable, for free.

I’ve been subscribed for over six months. It’s a great daily read — concise, fun, and a clean crisp design. You get one email each morning and that’s it. They even have a fun weekend edition. I recommend it.

How the CIA Used Crypto AG Encryption Devices to Spy on Countries for Decades 

Greg Miller, reporting earlier this month for The Washington Post:

For more than half a century, governments all over the world trusted a single company to keep the communications of their spies, soldiers and diplomats secret.

The company, Crypto AG, got its first break with a contract to build code-making machines for U.S. troops during World War II. Flush with cash, it became a dominant maker of encryption devices for decades, navigating waves of technology from mechanical gears to electronic circuits and, finally, silicon chips and software. The Swiss firm made millions of dollars selling equipment to more than 120 countries well into the 21st century. Its clients included Iran, military juntas in Latin America, nuclear rivals India and Pakistan, and even the Vatican.

But what none of its customers ever knew was that Crypto AG was secretly owned by the CIA in a highly classified partnership with West German intelligence. These spy agencies rigged the company’s devices so they could easily break the codes that countries used to send encrypted messages.

What a story. And in turn, makes you wonder what companies the CIA or NSA (or spy agencies from other governments) might own today.

A Pro-Foldable Look at the Galaxy Z Flip 

Michael Simon, writing for PC World:

As soon as I picked up the iPhone back in 2007, I knew that the future of the smartphone had arrived. I feel the same way about the Galaxy Z Flip.

When I flipped it open for the first time, the Galaxy Z Flip was as much of a revelation as the first time I slid my finger to unlock the original iPhone. The other folding phones I’ve used from Huawei, Royale, and Samsung have all felt a little off, almost like they were movie props meant to look like futuristic phones. From the plastic screens to the uncertain form factors, folding phones might be wow-worthy, but they haven’t felt like the kind of product that could change the way we think about smartphones.

I have little doubt that good foldables are in our collective future. Somewhere between today’s technology and something like the phone-to-tablet foldables on Westworld, we might look back on unfoldable phones as archaic and bulky.