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Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier

politico.eu

91–100 of 246 posts

Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier

#91

The Dutch should be aware that if Netherland has some information-sharing agreements with Five Eyes or Fourteen Eyes, all this data will still be available to the US (and other allies) (hopefully, presumably, with your government acting as the gatekeeper).

> if Netherland has some information-sharing agreements with … Fourteen Eyes

Probably a safe assumption, since the Netherlands is a member of the Fourteen Eyes

Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier

#92
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Solvinity is a pretty terrible company name. I find it okay'ish. At least it's unique. Say, as much as I like Mario Zechner (who doesn't like HNers anymore for whatever reason), naming your product "Pi" is just terribly bad. Facebook was a good name (hate the company but the name was good). But "Meta" is just dumbfucktarded. Wait... I've got an idea: I'm going to make a product and name it "Alt". Or "Control". Real…

I've always found Whatsapp a terrible name, but its so established now that 'apping' is understood. If you're big enough it seems that a bad name hardly hold you back.

"To whatsapp" is a common verb, but I have never heard anyone say "apping".

Where do you live where "apping" is understood?

Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier

#93
> Vital digital supplier.

They make the login-screen. And now for businesses there are like 5 providers of the login screen (that you HAVE to use in order to use govt websites): you have to choose one and pay like 40EUR/y in order to log in.

Calling a login screen vital is, yes, the truth.

Out-sourcing --and creating a market for-- the login screen is, to me, one of the most bizarre thing I've seen the Dutch govt do in recent years.

Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier

#94
post #93

> Vital digital supplier. They make the login-screen. And now for businesses there are like 5 providers of the login screen (that you HAVE to use in order to use govt websites): you have to choose one and pay like 40EUR/y in order to log in. Calling a login screen vital is, yes, the truth. Out-sourcing --and creating a market for-- the login screen is, to me, one of the most bizarre thing I've seen the Dutch govt do…

Oh, and if you out-source it, then I do not thing you should have a say in whom the contract. Either keep it in house, or out-source.

They contracted the market and now they want to control it as if it's in house.

Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier

#95
post #31

If it's such a vital piece of Dutch infrastructure, why is it in private hands at all?

Because too few IT capable people are willing to work under the government's pay scales; in most cases going private / corporate earns more. So most Dutch IT projects end up with private companies, which also means that, in the case of DigID and the secure / official messaging platform, the hosting party can charge exorbitant rates. Did you know it costs 25 cents to send a message via the Berichtenbox? So when the go…

1. Neoliberal doctrine: government=waste, company=efficient, let's privatize.

2. The ruling party for over a decade is the VVD, a Republican Party with training wheels, with Tea Party like spinoffs in varying degrees over rabid idiocy. The VVD heavily depend on a small network of big donors and as such are strongly nudged to source the policy advice from those networks. The IT backbone of those government agencies are thus run by big corporate IT shops, which is also politically convenient as you can shrug of responsibility when it turns out there is some light between the theory and the practice of the neoliberal doctrine.

Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier

#96

The Dutch should be aware that if Netherland has some information-sharing agreements with Five Eyes or Fourteen Eyes, all this data will still be available to the US (and other allies) (hopefully, presumably, with your government acting as the gatekeeper).

> (hopefully, presumably, with your government acting as the gatekeeper)

Exactly, that gatekeeper role is what's the difference here. Do you give all data to another country and ask them for pieces back as needed (whenever someone wants to use DigiD, the country can block it), or do you host it yourself and only share the parts that are relevant for this other country's investigations?

Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier

#97
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always found Whatsapp a terrible name, but its so established now that 'apping' is understood. If you're big enough it seems that a bad name hardly hold you back.

"To whatsapp" is a common verb, but I have never heard anyone say "apping". Where do you live where "apping" is understood?

Heard it many times in the Netherlands.

Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier

#98
post #78

The Dutch should be aware that if Netherland has some information-sharing agreements with Five Eyes or Fourteen Eyes, all this data will still be available to the US (and other allies) (hopefully, presumably, with your government acting as the gatekeeper).

It's not only about the data, it's about the risk that the US would basically turn off things like tax collection and doctors' visits in the Netherlands as part of (say) a first strike on Greenland. Sure, the chance is low. But in the current climate people are nervous and it's best not to risk it. The current government has already embarked on a long-term strategy to bring more of critical software infrastructure ba…

Why would the risk be low?

Trump also already sanctioned Justices from the ICC based in Netherlands because he didn't like them.

He's clearly not the guy with impulse control

Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier

#99
post #26
post #3

Finally! The entire country has been clamouring for this for weeks, and the government has been completely silent about it. A couple of weeks ago, the entire parliament (with only a single party dissenting) voted for a motion to end the contract with Solvinity, but the government extended it anyway, leaving blocking the takeover as the only option, and there wasn't a lot of confidence that the government would do tha…

It is a bit more complex tham that. Logius is the company that actually owns and manages the DigiD stack, it's just that they hired Solvinity for their expertise. AFAIK Solvinity can't access the data. I can't find it right now, but on Tweakers there was a long comment by someone on the inside that explained Logius basically had almost no know-how of how the current stack works, and there's lots of bespoke stuff. Bas…

The German eID stack does also work well, just as the Austrian one does.

Tbh I like the German one even better because you need your physical Identity Card and can use your phone as the reader

Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier

#100
post #17
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All governments are "doing something". It just isn't at all effective and mostly because they're unwilling to invest even marginal amounts. Like in this case. The technology here utterly depends on Google Play Services on Android or App Attest on Apple (or "secure enclave"), and that is in fact essentially the only functionality. This could have been solved instead switching to a standard (switching to OATH, RFC 4226…

I can sign in to DigID without using my phone, except sometimes with an SMS verification code. (Of course they want to, and should, phase that out. Hopefully that won't be replaced by app store dependence.)

What alternative is there, today, that would allow securely doing this without an app store dependency?

Only a few EU countries have rolled out NFC-based eID functionality (as only physical ICAO-based ID verification via NFC is a mandatory part of the EU ID card standard); those are the only ones with a viable path forward in the short term.

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