Operation RUBICON

Speaker: Paul Reuvers en Mark Simons

Abstract

In 1970 the German intelligence service BND and their American counterpart CIA, secretly purchased the Swiss company Crypto AG; at the time the world's largest seller of cipher machines to non-NATO countries. It was used to spy on at least 150 nations. In 2020, after two years of research, the German TV station ZDF, together with SRF, Washington Post, Argos and Crypto Museum, revealed the secret CIA/BND Operation RUBICON. In this talk we'll show how the intelligence services secretly purchased the company and kept it out of everyone's view, whilst creating backdoors in the products that were sold by Crypto AG. How it was used to spy on friend and foo, and how it turned Swiss Neutrality into an illusion.

Biography

Paul Reuvers is a self-employed software developer who started his enterprise in 1986. In 2003 he co-founded the virtual Crypto Museum in Eindhoven (Netherlands), together with Marc Simons. Crypto Museum is a not-for-profit organisation that specialises in the restoration and preservation of historical cipher machines and espionage gadgets. In 2020, Crypto Museum, together with German television station ZDF, revealed that the Swiss company Crypto AG - the world largest manufacturer of cryptographic equipment - was owned by the German and American intelligence services. In a secret operation known as Operation Rubicon, the CIA and BND had bought the company in 1970.

Marc Simons is a self-employed hardware developer who started his enterprise in 2000. In 2003 he co-founded the virtual Crypto Museum in Eindhoven (Netherlands), together with Paul Reuvers. Crypto Museum is a not-for-profit organisation that specialises in the restoration and preservation of historical cipher machines and espionage gadgets. In 2020, Crypto Museum, together with German television station ZDF, revealed that the Swiss company Crypto AG - the world largest manufacturer of cryptographic equipment - was owned by the German and American intelligence services. In a secret operation known as Operation Rubicon, the CIA and BND had bought the company in 1970.

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