Encryption firm Crypto International to cut most of its Swiss staff

Crypto International AG acquired the rights to the scandal-tainted Crypto AG company in 2018. Keystone / Alexandra Wey

The successor company of Zug-based Crypto AG, which sold compromised encryption devices, announced that more than 80 employees will be made redundant.

On Friday, Bernhard Neidhart, head of the Office of Economy and Labour of the Canton of Zug, confirmed information published in the NZZ paper. Zug’s labour office has been informed of the opening of a consultation phase due to a possible mass redundancy, Neidhart told press agency Keystone-SDA, without giving further details.

According to the newspaper article, Crypto International AG intends to cut 83 of its 85 positions in Switzerland. The posts affected are mainly specialists in the field of cybersecurity. These redundancies are likely linked linked to the government’s refusal to grant the company an export licence.

Crypto International AG acquired the rights to the now scandal-tainted Crypto AG company in 2018. Revelations this year that Crypto AG was at the heart of a vast CIA spying operation has shaken Switzerland to the core. The Zug-based communications encryption firm which was liquidated in 2018, sold code-making equipment to Iran, India, Pakistan, Latin American nations and dozens of other countries. The technology was modified to let the CIA and German secret service (BND) break codes, as reported by The Washington Post along with Swiss public television, SRF, and German broadcaster ZDF.