Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a state owned enterprise as far as I remember. So technically they don't wear civil service uniforms in the office, but still get the usual government office hours.
The Dutch civil service wears a uniform?
No
Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier
101–110 of 246 posts
Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Dutch civil service wears a uniform?
No
Except for the military.
I once interviewed for a job at what I think was a civil service branch that developed software for the military. But they were out of budget for this, while the military did have budget, so if I was hired, I'd have to wear a military uniform to the office. A very stylish one, they claimed.
Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Estonia's tech was cool maybe 20 years ago. From what I understand it's a bit too hard on fetishization of PKI and Ukraine goes too hard on apps. Netherlands actually gets it really well with DigId that is doing bare minimum needed to actually perform eidas stuff without getting into the woods with legally blessed asn1 schemas and oid [0]. I'm not sure what bespoke stuff they invented to get their sweet vendor lock i…
Can you elaborate on what you find problematic about the Estonian ID stack?
Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier
#104Earlier 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.)
The default will likely be the app, but if you have an NFC reader you should be able to use your passport or ID to authenticate as well.
The app has the benefit of being free, getting a working reader costs 60-90 euros last time I checked and Linux driver support isn't great.
Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
There are plenty of people who are willing to work for the government and the pay is pretty decent. But their stack is often Microsoft based and their IT is located in Apeldoorn. Who in their right mind would want to travel all the way to Apeldoorn. A good example of internal development in the government is the police. They have internal development teams.
Apeldoorn is actually a very nice place, surrounded by nature.
Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
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
Sanctioning people is basically risk-free and more importantly dollar-free. Fighting wars is extremely not-free, as Trump is currently discovering in Iran. I personally rate the risk of the US actually invading Greenland as not higher than about 10%, with the matter most likely being resolved by the US administration re-discovering that the US is allowed to establish a base on the country, doing so and then announcing with big fanfare that they solved the terrible terrible problem of Greenland being "the most unsafe".
Still though, that is about 10 percentage points higher than before Trump took office. Better not to hand him too many tools to exert leverage with.
Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is just about the only measure. People who claim something is extremely important and then will not take any action or spend any money - they're dishonest people. Let's see if the Dutch are men of their words. I expect the government to offer to buy this company, or an offering being made for the Dutch investing public to get shares.
Is water less important to the poor person dying of thirst than to the rich guy watering his lawn?
The question is rather: Why would a person complain about dying of thirst, but refuse to go to the river to drink, and also refuse to pay for a glass of water. That makes me believe he is dishonest when he's saying he is thirsty.
Or are we pretending that the Dutch people don't have any money between them to make an offer on this company?
Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is water less important to the poor person dying of thirst than to the rich guy watering his lawn?
The question is rather: Why would a person complain about dying of thirst, but refuse to go to the river to drink, and also refuse to pay for a glass of water. That makes me believe he is dishonest when he's saying he is thirsty. Or are we pretending that the Dutch people don't have any money between them to make an offer on this company?
We're just establishing that what one can pay is in fact not the only measure, disproving your universal assertion by counterexample.
Regarding the specific case, they probably have the money. But they don't need it. Such is the beauty of regulatory power, vested in a democracy.
Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier
#109Finally! 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…
lets be frank, these are changes caused by the downgrading of the American administration to a subscription services behind a paywall that requires DLC, root based encryption bypasses and a Clippy popup that instead of trying to be helpful is indistinguishable from a mafia racket.
Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier
#110From the article:
> Kyndryl said in a statement it was "extremely disappointed" about the decision. "The politicization of this process has overshadowed the clear and important benefits this transaction would have brought to Solvinity's customers and Dutch citizens."
Are these guys so tone-death to the point they even try to gaslight the world? They are trying to take over a nation's ID system. Who in their right mind sees this as anything other than a national security issue?