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Heavy snowfall in Davos. Soldiers from the Army Command Support Base (FUB) set up directional antennas. A dark-voiced man explains off-screen: “The FUB is responsible for the army’s independent communications network at the WEF in Davos.”
Camera cut. The image shows an Omnisec BSG-93 packet encryption device. This means that the messages are transmitted in encrypted form. There is a sticker labeled “CSA” on the device. In the Swiss Army, the abbreviation means Chief of the Army Staff. The film is from 2016. The military filmed it for propaganda purposes. It was viewed almost 60,000 times on YouTube. As viewers of the film, we note: Even the Army of the General Staff communicates at the WEF through a device from the Omnisec company.
Application to the Department of Defense (VBS) in Bern. Can the DDPS confirm the use of Omnisec technology in the Swiss army?
No further information is communicated for security reasons. “This is sensitive information that affects the security of Switzerland.”
The doubts are in order
Secret? Sensitive? Brief investigation on the Facebook and Instagram pages of the army units that are responsible for the communication: Soldiers and officers (wearing masks, because it’s September 2020) discuss deployment plans in front of a stack of Omnisec encryption devices. The purpose of the BSG-93 is shown in detail in a sketch. According to its website, the directional ray school in Kloten trains soldiers and cadres for the military Swisscom. Thanks to our school, the state government and the army have soldiers to establish and operate secure connections.
Secure connections? The doubts are in order. The supplier of the BSG-93 is the Zurich company Omnisec. This was infiltrated by foreign secret services, as SVP National Councilor Alfred Heer, chairman of the GPDel parliamentary oversight commission, said at the request of CH Media. The investigation by “Rundschau”, “WoZ” and “Republik” revealed in November that Omnisec, which is controlled by the US secret services, delivered tampered OC-500 fax machines to the main bank UBS and the Swiss secret services of the epoch, DAP and SND. would have. According to GPDel’s report on the Crypto company, which sold manipulated encryption devices to half the world with Swiss cooperation, the head of VBS at the time, Samuel Schmid, did what was necessary to remedy the deficiencies identified in these fax machines.
Alfred Heer, SVP National Councilor and Chairman of the GPDel Parliamentary Oversight Commission.
© Keystone
But what about the BSG-93, which is still widely used in the Swiss army, Alfred Heer? For reasons of secrecy, he could not say anything about it. Regarding the safety of Omnisec products, Heer generally states: “The difference between a tampered device and a faulty device is difficult, and possibly not even proven.”
The company presented itself as one of the leading strong Swiss companies.
The DDPS believes it is on the safe side: “Based on current knowledge, weaknesses in the encryption systems supplied to the Swiss authorities can be excluded.” But: Swiss authorities thought the same in the 1990s and early 2000s when they bought Omnisec OC-500 fax machines. After all, the company claimed to be a very solid Swiss company operating without foreign influence. The manipulation became known in the mid-1990s, at least to the responsible authorities. The public didn’t find out about this until the fall of 2020.
But let’s go back to the secret BSG-93: research shows that it is in use, for example, to secure the World Economic Forum in Davos. Or for training and practical purposes at the 62 directional beam school in Kloten. We also know, as a glance at the Army’s annual weapons programs shows, that the R-905 directional small beam system has been purchased in several deliveries since the 1990s. This mobile communications system was originally designed for the Integrated System of Military Telecommunications (IMFS). Later, however, it was also used as a “reliable means of connection” for other military networks. “With the 93 packet encryption device that belongs to the system, it offers a high-performance, shockproof means for mobile and stationary operations,” says the 2007 armaments program.
The rest is secret
It is up to the Federal Council to ensure that Switzerland has secure devices for communication, says National Councilor Alfred Heer, President of GPDel. The latter commented on this in the report on Crypto AG. “It can be assumed that it is an important task for GPDel to verify what the authorities and the Federal Council are doing to ensure the security of communication channels,” says Heer.
The rest is secret. So secret that, after CH Media’s investigation, VBS made the too-light images of the BSG-93 disappear from its media library.
By the way: according to a “Rundschau” investigation, Finland did not use Omnisec products in military and diplomatic networks in the late 1990s. Too insecure. For a long time, people have trusted neutral Switzerland’s encryption technology to be secure. This is still done today in Switzerland.
