In addition to Zug-based Crypto AG, the Zurich-based Omnisec also sold manipulated encryption devices. However, these were not only delivered abroad, but also to Swiss federal offices and companies. This is revealed by new research around the secret service affair.
According to the GPDel, several private Swiss companies also use the Omnisec encryption devices. According to the “Rundschau” it was, among other things, UBS. The manipulations were finally discovered in the mid-2000s by cryptologists from the military command support base.
According to the “Rundschau”, the Department of Defense, the Federal Intelligence Service and the Federal Council did not want to comment on the matter. Heer did not want to comment on whether the GPDel wanted to take the Omnisec case under the microscope. For example, the Zurich FDP National Council and long-time banker Hans-Peter Portmann is calling for this to be rolled up. In the report of the “Rundschau” he speaks of a “new dimension in the intelligence affair”. He demands that it be clarified which federal agencies knew, whether the economy was warned and what role the Federal Council played.
Incidentally, the “WOZ” reported on the ownership structure of Omnisec in 2013 and at the beginning of this year. According to the information, millions of dollars flowed from a New York law firm between 1995 and 2000 via a mailbox company called Torcross from the Netherlands Antilles into the company from Dällikon. In addition, the CIA tried to bring the Gretag – the predecessor of the Omnisec – under their control as early as the 1970s. An informant from the Washington Post told the WOZ that after the dissolution of Gretag, the CIA had taken over another company with funds from Crypto AG and built a new one – one of which was apparently Omnisec.
