THE DIRECTOR OF SWITZERLAND’S spy service will step down once his mandate ends in August, allegedly over a dispute with the country’s governing council about the Crypto AG affair, which shook Swiss politics last year.
THE DIRECTOR OF SWITZERLAND’S spy service will step down once his mandate ends in August, allegedly over a dispute with the country’s governing council about the Crypto AG affair, which shook Swiss politics last year. Jean-Philippe Gaudin headed Switzerland’s Military Intelligence Service from 2008 to 2015. He then served as a defense attaché at the Swiss embassy in Paris, France, before being appointed by the then-Defense Minister, Guy Parmelin as director of the Federal Intelligence Service (FIS). Founded in 2010, the FIS performs both domestic and external intelligence functions in the Alpine state.
But, according to reports in the Swiss media, Gaudin is not expected to continue in his post once his mandate ends, on August 31. The reason seems to be tensions within the Swiss government over the so-called Crypto AG affair. The scandal centers on the world’s leading manufacturer of cryptologic equipment during the Cold War, Crypto AG, whose clients included over 120 govern
Since 2008, when
intelNews was launched, it has been our end-of-year tradition to take a look back and highlight what we believe were the most important intelligence-related stories of the past 12 months. In anticipation of what 2021 may bring in this highly volatile field, we present you with our selection of the top spy stories of 2020. They are listed below in reverse order of significance, starting from 10 and leading up to 1. This is part three in a three-part series. Part one is available here and part two is here.
01.
COVID-19 prompts spy agencies’ mission shift that is ‘reminiscent of the space race’. The worldwide competition to invent a vaccine that can curtail the spread of COVID-19, and to secure sufficient quantities of the vaccine, has prompted a mission shift in major intelligence agencies around the world. This mission shift is taking place with such speed that it is “reminiscent of the space race”, according to
Government calls for swift decision on Crypto export licences
Manipulated devices were sold to more than 100 countries for spying purposes Keystone / Ennio Leanza
The Swiss government has instructed the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) to examine and approve the suspended export applications for encryption devices and modules in connection with the Crypto spying affair, provided the relevant requirements are met.
This content was published on December 31, 2020 - 16:45
December 31, 2020 - 16:45
Keystone-SDA/ts
This is in response to the suspension of the criminal proceedingsExternal link by the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG).
For decades Crypto, a Zug-based communications encryption firm, allegedly sold these secretly manipulated devices to more than 100 countries for spying purposes. Until 2018 the company was owned by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Germany Federal Intelligence Service (BND), both of whom had the a