The Business of Secrets

Adventures in Selling Encryption Around the World

De: Fred Kinch

Narrado por: Troy Mullins

What was it like to sell cryptographic equipment post WWII, after the era of Alan Turing and the Enigma machine? Join the author as he markets more modern equipment to the “CIA’s” and “NSA’s” of some 80 countries around the world; gaining trust where the first instinct is to trust no one, especially someone from the U.S. In this intriguing world, learn about the relationships between intelligence organizations and who they “really” consider a trustworthy ally and friend.

Walk beside him as he faces challenges and adventures that are sometimes dangerous and scary and sometimes humorous and fun, such as:

• Supporting the Omani Armed Forces as they fought the Yemini and Red Chinese backed rebels and helping Oman win.
• Driving through war torn Beirut in the middle of the night.
• Defeating a Peruvian company sponsored by their Navy that tried to copy and reverse engineer his company’s equipment.
• Handling the disaster when one of his company’s products was cryptographically broken by a slightly deaf army sergeant.
• And more…..

Laugh, cry, and experience fear as the author navigates his way through these situations, eventually overcoming the odds to make his company successful.

©2024 Fred Kinch (P)2025 Fred Kinch

Golden age of the Biz

Loved it! I mentioned to my wife several times through the two weeks listening to this book how much I was enjoying it. I work in a related field and have academic and sales experience in the subject matter in more modern times so reading about the early days of sales in this field from a pioneering, amateuristic (freely admitted in the book) perspective was fascinating. There is criticism of this book around the content being tone deaf and arguments that the firm's products were insecure and compromised by US agencies. I don't see those as valid detractors to what I've observed as an honest retelling from the perspective of a sales and cryptography novice finding their way around product delopment and selling to new international corporate and gov customers along extended sales cycles. The narrator sounded flat the first third of the book but eventually I was so eager to hear more that I long forgot about it. A+ production. My sincere appreciation to the author and all involved for their contributions to the industry and this book/audiobook.