American intelligence and its German counterpart were not only controlling a Swiss company specialized in cryptography, but two, to more easily spy on foreign governments, Swiss public television revealed, prompting Swiss parliamentarians to call for a new investigation.
In February, evidence gathered together by the American newspaper The The Washington Post and Swiss German-language public broadcaster SRF. The two media outlets then revealed that the CIA, in collaboration with the BND, had been in control of the Crypto AG company since 1970, through which they secured access to classified communications.
But a second Swiss company, the smaller Omnisec, was used in the same way, the SRF revealed this week.
Until two years ago, when it suspended operations due to financial problems, Omnisec sold voice encryption devices, fax and data to governments around the world.
Like Crypto AG, its products allowed American and German spies to gain access to exchanges that its customers thought were safe.
But Omnisec had also supplied OC-500 series devices to Swiss federal authorities services, as well as at UBS – Switzerland's largest bank – and other large Swiss private companies, SRF noted.
A revelation that provoked strong reactions, as the Crypto scandal is still fresh in the memory of many.
"This raises the issue of espionage even to the detriment of the country," Hans-Peter Portman, a Liberal MP, told the public television network.
Socialist Party co-chair Cedric Vermouth has called for a new parliamentary inquiry.
"How is it possible that such a thing happened in a country that declares itself neutral, such as Switzerland?" He asked.
A parliamentary inquiry into the Crypto AG case concluded in October that Swiss intelligence services had benefited from information provided to them by the CIA and BND's devices, but failed to inform the federal government.
"The Strategic Intelligence Service (SRS), the predecessor of the Federal Intelligence Service (SRC), has known since 1993 that foreign intelligence services were hiding behind Crypto AG," the network said. illegal, but at the same time stressed that the Swiss spies deliberately hid it from the institutions to which they refer.
Crypto's clients included Iran, Latin American military juntas, the India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Libya, but also the Vatican, according to the Post.
The machineitems sold to US allies were secure, while others could be accessed at will by US spies, according to the newspaper.