Maximator

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Maximator (after a type of beer from the Augustiner brewery ) is the internal name of a secret service association between the secret services of Denmark , Germany , France , the Netherlands and Sweden , comparable to the Five Eyes . It was founded in 1976 on the initiative of the Danish secret service and has since operated largely undetected. The most important tool in the investigation and decryption was the sale of encryption devices with weak encryption methods. This was done via Crypto AG , which secretly belonged to the BND and the CIA .

Internationally, Maximator was the subject of The Register and Bruce Schneier .

Emergence

Maximator was founded in 1976 on the initiative of Denmark with Sweden and Germany. The Netherlands joined in 1978 and France in 1985.

activities

So far, only the activities of the Dutch arm TIVC (formerly Technisch Informatie Verwerkingscentrum, today Joint Sigint Cyber ​​Unit ) are known, whereby mainly administrative assistance for the GCHQ in the Falklands War was given in the decryption of the Argentine radio traffic.

At the urging of the CIA, the sale of compromised encryption devices from the Dutch company Philips to Turkey was enforced against the will of the BND and the TIVC.

The service maintained a ground station in the Caribbean on Curaçao , which monitored and decoded the radio traffic from Cuba and Venezuela .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c 'Maximator: European signals intelligence cooperation, from a Dutch perspective' , Bart Jacobs (2020), Intelligence and National Security, DOI: 10.1080 / 02684527.2020.1743538
  2. ^ 'The intelligence coup of the century' , Washington Post , February 11, 2020
  3. ↑ Gareth Corfield: Dutch spies helped Britain's GCHQ break Argentine crypto during Falklands War. The Register , May 18, 2020, accessed May 22, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Bruce Schneier : Denmark, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands and France SIGINT Alliance. May 4, 2020, accessed May 22, 2020 .
  5. ↑ 'Secret Service Cooperation "Maximator": The Five Eyes of Europe?' , Heise , April 8, 2020