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← Crypto Switzerland
Gretag,
or Gretacoder Data Systems,
or simply Gretacoder,
was a manufacturer of cryptographic equipment, based in Regensdorf
near Zürich (Switzerland).
It was founded by Dr. Edgar Gretener who was not only a direct competitor
of Boris Hagelin, but also worked with him
on a number of occasions. The company, which also made the encryption devices
for international
SWIFT
bank transactions, had a world-wide customer base
and had once over 2500 people on its payroll.
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Gretag produced a range of
commercial, industrial and military cipher machines,
that were of a remarkable quality and were not rigged by foreign
intelligence services like
CIA
or BND, although the latter two tried to
get their hand on Gretag on several occasions.
In 1991, the company was eventually taken over
– under control of the CIA –
by AT&T,
and liquidated in 2004 – when it was owned by
SafeNet.
Before the takeover however, most of the patents had already been transferred
to Omnisec AG - a new Swiss company that
had been created especially for that purpose.
More...
Gretag's cipher machines are known under different names and numbers.
Generally speaking, the numbering was never changed, but different
prefixes and brand names were used.
The name Gretacoder was sometimes abbreviated as 'GC'
or 'TC' (for: Tele-Crypto, or Teleprinter Crypto).
E.g.: the military 812 telex encryption unit
is known as Gretacoder 812,
GC-812 and
TC-812.
➤ More about Gretag
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Gretag cipher machines on this website
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Telekrypto-Gerät 35 (TKG) was an online cipher machine
for Gretag's proprietary 14-bit teleprinters, such as
the ETK-47.
It was a joint development of Dr. Edgar Gretener (Gretag)
and competitor Boris Hagelin and used Hagelin's pin-wheel
system.
➤ More information
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The TC-53 was the first electro-mechanical cipher machine
manufactured by Gretag for the Swiss Army. It was based on an earlier
design of Dr. Edgar Gretener and competitor Boris Hagelin.
The machine had 12 cipher wheels and used a novel 14-bit technique, rather
than the usual 5-bits for transmission of the data.
➤ More information
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Around 1958, Gretag introduced the TC-58 cipher unit, which could be
fitted on top of the KFF-58 teletypewriter. Like its predecessor, the TC-53,
it has 12 cipher wheels and uses Gretag's 14-bit data transfer technology,
rather than the more common digital 5-bit ITA-2 standard.
The machine was used by the Swiss Army, and also by the Austrian Army.
➤ More information
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In 1964, Gretag made the move to electronic cipher machines,
with the development of the TC-534. It was a military device
that consisted of two large watertight boxes, and was built
with in-house developed digital building blocks.
➤ More information
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Around 1970, Gretag introduced the first fully electronic portable
cipher machine for teletype signals. The device was housed in a standard
Samsonite briefcase and was intended for by the intelligence and diplomatic
community.
The device was later found to be insecure as it uses linear-feedback
shift registers (LFSRs), after which it was succeeded by the
Gretacoder 805.
➤ More information
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In the mid-1970s, Gretag developed an all-in-one electronic cipher
machine for teletype signals, aimed to the replace the KFF/TC-58
which used the (meanwhile) obsolete ETK teleprinter technology.
➤ More infomration
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The Gretacoder 101, or GC-101, was a modular speech scrambler for telephone
and radio links, introduced in 1975. It uses two-dimensional voice
scrambling and was based on the earlier SC-101 from 1973.
The device is suitable for half-duplex only, which is controlled by
a Push-To-Talk (PTT) switch in the handset.
➤ More information
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The Gretacoder 103, or GC-103, was a voice scrambler for
analogue telephone lines. It is inserted between the phone
and the line.
It uses time-domain as well as frequency-domain
scrambling and was manufactuered as an OEM product by Telsy in Italy.
It is identical to the Telsy TDS-2004.
➤ More information
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The Gretacoder 104, or GC-104, was a voice scrambler for
mobile use.
It uses time-domain as well as frequency-domain
scrambling and was manufactuered as an OEM product by Telsy in Italy.
It is identical to the Telsy TDS-2004M.
➤ More information
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The Gretacoder 805 was a small portable electronic cipher machine
that was fitted inside a standard Samsonite briefcase, together with
a small thermal printer.
➤ More information
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As the Gretacoder 805 had a highly modular design,
a variety of different configurations were possible.
For the office, a large desktop version could be created,
complete with a papertape reader/puncher ans shown here.
➤ More information
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Gretacoder 905 was the first fully-electronic portable cipher
machine, produced by Gretag in 1976. It has a display with 32 LEDs
and features just three push-buttons and one rotary switch.
The GC-905 was a direct competitor of the Hagelin HC-520.
➤ More information
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Gretacoder 519 was one of the first fax encryption devices on the market.
It was introduced in 1984 and was inserted between a modem and the actual
fax machine. It was suitable for speeds up to 9600 baud.
➤ More information
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Gretacoder 524 was a line encryptor for synchronous (RS-232) serial links,
developed in the early 1990s when Gretag was part of AT&T. It supports
continuous data encryption at rates up to 64 kb/s and was available with
various interfaces and (software) options.
➤ More information
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This 19" rackmount system, consisted of two units.
One for either side of the communication link.
It was used to encypher and decypher multiplexed
data streams over satellite links.
➤ More information
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Gretacoder 605 was a line encryptor for synchronous (RS-422) serial links,
developed in the mid-1990s when Gretag was part of IRE (Now: SafeNet).
It supports continuous data encryption at rates up to 2048 kb/s and was
available with various interfaces and options.
➤ More information
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Gretacoder 720 was a highly secure DES encryptor for international
bank-to-bank payments (SWIFT). It was housed in a large strong 19"
case and was highly tamper-proof.
➤ More information
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Below is a non-exhaustive list of the various Gretag
devices we've identified so far. Initially all cipher machines
were built under the Gretag brand. Later the name was changed
to Gretacoder, which was sometimes abbreviated as 'GC'.
In the overview below, 'GC' stands for Gretacoder, whilst 'TC'
stands for 'Tele Crypto' or 'Teleprinter Crypto'.
Found another one? Please let us know.
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1951 Telecrypto mechanical cipher machine 1953 Telecrypto electromechanical cipher machine (ETK) 1958 Telecrypto electromechanical cipher machine (KFF) TC-61 1961 Later development of KFF/TC compatible with 5-bit baudot QRG-101 1965 Quasi-random generator RAG-101 1965 Random Generator PTR-101 1965 Paper-tape reader LUSD-68 1968 ETK-ITA2 converter TC-812 1969 Military telex encryptor 1975 Electronic telex encryptor SC-101 1973 Voice scrambler 1975 Voice scrambler (mobile) 1975 Voice scrambler (mobile) SC-201 1976 Voice encryptor GC-202 1977 Voice encryptor GC-210 1980 Voice encryptor GC-505 1978 Teletype encryptor (compatible with GC-805) GC-515 1977 Block cipher (SWIFT payments) GC-517 1979 Data encryptor GC-518 1980 Link encryptor 1984 Fax encryptor 1980 Teleprinter encryptor 1992 Serial X.21 link encryptor 1964 Military speech encryptor (uses building blocks) GC-545 1997 X.25 data encryptor GC-549 1998 X.25 data encryptor - Network Security Center (NSC) GC-555 ? Frame Relay Encryptor GC-601 1978 Military block cipher 1979 Civil block cipher 1995 V.35 Link data encryptor GC-650 2000 High-speed link encryptor GC-700 1989 Highly secure link encryptor (SIA Italian inter-bank) 1989 Highly secure link encryptor (SIC Swiss inter-bank) 1998 Highly secure link encryptor for SWIFT payments TC-800 1967 Portable electronic telex encryptor (prototype of TC-803) TC-801 1968 ? TC-802 1968 ? 1968 Portable electronic telex encryptor TC-804 1968 ? 1978 Portable off-line encryptor 1978 Desktop off-line encryptor PTR-810 1978 Paper-tape reader HSP-830 1978 Paper-tape puncher 1974 Pocket encryptor (compatible with GC-805) GC-906 1975 Pocket encryptor with keyboard (compatible with GC-805) GC-915 1975 Off-line authenticator for banks
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D-1 1965 Densitometer CGC-501 1965 Coulometer
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© Crypto Museum. Created: Thursday 06 August 2009. Last changed: Tuesday, 11 April 2023 - 06:22 CET.
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