NSA's Backdoor of the PX1000-Cr
I knew the director of Textlite, Hugo Krop. He was active as an investor as well, a coke junk and went around with a body guard with a gun at all times driving a black armored (so he claimed) Mercedes.<p>Textlite was the brand used for the LED light bars which they designed and manufactured, and which were a runaway success.<p>The PX-1000 was his brainchild too, but it never got the market adoption that they were hoping for.<p>More information [1], [2].<p>Weird but interesting character. Hugo had a bit of a lifestyle problem (to put it mildly) and when Textlite cratered he went into all kinds of really shady deals, one of which was a fund that ostensibly grew trees in Latin America.<p>Eventually he went to jail [3] because it turned out that those forests of trees didn&#x27;t exist. He died recently (in 2018).<p>I have a lot of funny and some not so funny stories about Hugo, he wasn&#x27;t the nicest man due to his habit but when sober and clean was smart and interesting to talk to and tuned in to trends that others only saw much later. You can think of the PX-1000 as an early version of what today would be called a cryptophone, a mobile way for people to communicate securely.<p>What is interesting is that in this particular context instead of the main use case highlighted being criminals the case of Nelson Mandela and his army of supporters is used to exemplify the power of such a device.<p>This was in the age when all information traveled in plaintext and to suddenly have someone sell a device that afforded &#x27;pretty good privacy&#x27; was a thing that the intelligence services found hard to deal with.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.groene.nl&#x2F;artikel&#x2F;versleuteld-maar-niet-voor-amerika" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.groene.nl&#x2F;artikel&#x2F;versleuteld-maar-niet-voor-ame...</a><p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.vpro.nl&#x2F;argos&#x2F;lees&#x2F;onderwerpen&#x2F;cryptoleaks&#x2F;2020&#x2F;cryptoleaks-operatie-rubicon-en-de-px-1000.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.vpro.nl&#x2F;argos&#x2F;lees&#x2F;onderwerpen&#x2F;cryptoleaks&#x2F;2020&#x2F;...</a><p>[3] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.blikopdewereld.nl&#x2F;economie&#x2F;beleggersinfo&#x2F;de-belegger-bedrogen&#x2F;2396-oprichter-euro-greenmix-is-veroordeeld-wegens-geraffineerde-en-gewetenloze-oplichting-van-beleggers-deel-1" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.blikopdewereld.nl&#x2F;economie&#x2F;beleggersinfo&#x2F;de-bele...</a>