Operation Rubicon (German: Operation Rubikon), until the late 1980s called Operation Thesaurus, was a secret operation by the West German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), lasting from 1970 to 1993 and 2018, respectively, to gather communication intelligence of encrypted government communications of other countries.[1][2] This was accomplished through the sale of manipulated encryption technology (CX-52) from Swiss-based Crypto AG, which was secretly owned and influenced by the two services from 1970 onwards.[1] In a comprehensive CIA historical account of the operation leaked in early 2020, it was referred to as the "intelligence coup of the century" in a Washington Post article.[1] The Maximator alliance, which in addition to (West) Germany also includes Denmark, France, the Netherlands and Sweden, was also familiar with the vulnerabilities and used it in their intelligence gathering.[3][4]
- ^ a b c "The CIA secretly bought a company that sold encryption devices across the world. Then its spies sat back and listened". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2021-12-29.
- ^ ""Operation 'Rubikon'": #Cryptoleaks: Wie BND und CIA alle täuschten". www.zdf.de (in German). Retrieved 2021-12-29.
- ^ "A beery European spy club is revealed". The Economist. 28 May 2020. Retrieved 5 September 2024.
- ^ Jacobs, Bart (2020). "Maximator: European signals intelligence cooperation, from a Dutch perspective". Intelligence and National Security. 35 (5): 659–668. doi:10.1080/02684527.2020.1743538. hdl:2066/221037. ISSN 0268-4527.