Maximator (intelligence alliance)

**Maximator**
Maximator
	Members shown in blue
Type	Intelligence alliance
Members	Denmark; France; Germany; Netherlands; Sweden;
Establishment	1976; 48 years ago

Maximator (named after a type of beer from the German brewery Augustiner-Bräu) is an alliance between the secret services of Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden, comparable to the Five Eyes. It was founded in 1976 on the initiative of the Danish secret service and has operated largely undetected since then.^[1]

Relatively little is known about their work and the existence of Maximator only became public knowledge in 2020. Only certain details from the Dutch arm and associated groups have been published, but one of their most important tools for reconnaissance and decryption was the sale of encryption devices that had been compromised (backdoored). From the 1970s to the 2010s, one method involved Crypto AG, a supposedly private Swiss company secretly owned by the German BND and the American CIA.^[2]

^ "Maximator, a European spy pact to rival the Five Eyes, comes to light". The Economist. Retrieved 27 May 2020.
^ Cite error: The named reference intelligence-and-national-security-bart-jacobs was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[1] "Maximator, a European spy pact to rival the Five Eyes, comes to light". The Economist. Retrieved 27 May 2020.

[intelligence-and-national-security-bart-jacobs-2] Cite error: The named reference intelligence-and-national-security-bart-jacobs was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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