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Omnisec
Omnisec was a manufacturer of voice, fax and data encryption systems, based in Dällikon (Switzerland). The company was established 1 in 1987 by Dr. Pierre Schmid, a former employee of Gretag, and was first owned by Urs Ingold. The company was initially based in Regensdorf, the hometown of Gretag, and had acquired the sales rights of Gretag cryptographic equipment for the international governmental market, along with the ownership of some Gretag patents.


According to their own account, Omnisec was not bound by export restrictions — it was based in neutral Switzerland — and was able to supply its products to any government and army in the world [1]. On 25 November 2020 however, the Swiss SRF television program Rundschau revealed that for many years, Omnisec had been under full control of the American intelligence services CIA and NSA, and had sold weakened equipment 2 to its customers, even in Switzerland [2]. The latter was discovered by the Swiss commission that investigated the role of the Swiss Government in relation to competitor Crypto AG, which had been owned jointly by the BND and the CIA [3].

 More about Omnisec

  1. Pierre Schmid was the first director of OmniSec. The first owner of the company was Urs Ingold.
  2. Weakening of a cipher system is also known as a backdoor.

PLEASE HELP — Currently, this page is just of placeholder for the encryption products of Omnisec. At present Crypto Museum has no Omnisec cipher machines in its collection. If you have any information about the company, or if you have any items to expand our collection, please contact us.
Omnisec products on this website
Gretacoder 906 and peripheral
Known Omnisec products
Below is a non-exchaustive list of known OmniSec products. Please note that the 3-digit model number was commonly prefixed by the word 'Omnisec' (e.g. Omnisec 520) or by the letters 'OC' (e.g. OC-520). The products that were original developed by Gretag may also have a 'GC' prefix.

  • 205
    Radio Encryptor
  • 206
    Secure Handheld Radio
  • 207
    Secure Mobile Radio
  • 212
    Secure telephone
  • 213
    Secure telephone
  • 214
    Telephone handset encryptor
  • 215
    Telephone handset encryptor
  • 222
    Secure Telephone
  • 230
    Secure Mobile Phone
  • 320 E
    E-Mail Encryption Application
  • 320 F
    File Encryption Application
  • 410
    IP Encryptor 'Corporate' (VPN)
  • 411
    IP Encryptor 'Office' (VPN)
  • 421
    IP Encryptor (VPN)
  • 422
    IP Encryptor (VPN)
  • 423
    IP Encryptor (VPN)
  • 512
    Secure Field Message Terminal
  • 520
    Fax Encryptor
  • 525
    Fax Encryptor
  • 644
    Multi-Link Encryptor
  • 650
    High-Speed Link Encryptor
  • 660
    Multi-Link Encryptor
  • 710
    Key Management Center (KMC)
  • 711
    Key Management Center (KMC)
  • 730
    Network Management Center
  • 731
    Network Management Center
  • 736
    Network Management Center
  • 906
    Pocket cipher machine
  • 910
    Secure Message Field Terminal
References
  1. Omnisec website (now disfunct)
    Visited January 2015.

  2. Rundschau, Wirtschafts-Spionage? Die Geheimdienstaffäre weitet sich aus
    SRF Television, program Rundschau, 25 November 2020.

  3. Paul Reuvers and Marc Simons, Operation RUBICON
    Crypto Museum, 19 March 2020.

  4. Adrienne Fichter et al., Das innerste Auge
    Republik AG, 26 November 2020.
Further information
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© Crypto Museum. Created: Wednesday 07 January 2015. Last changed: Monday, 15 January 2024 - 12:05 CET.
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