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Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier

politico.eu

231–240 of 246 posts

Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier

#231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Techs trying to solve the tech problem. Governments need it to be solved by a team (either within the government or a vendor company) because it is the non-tech things that are missing from the open source solution: high availability / redundancy, hosting, backups, business continuity, audits, someone to grill when there is a leak. The people who work in government and banks aren’t incompetent. They are just like you…

I do in fact work in a bank and know a person who works on DigID. I wouldn't say incompetency is the word, but there is something ... special about the people and their skills here. >high availability oh yeah, oh noes.

I get what you mean. I worked for a private bank in NL for a bit. Everyone has something special, but we all had a common factor of being in bureaucracy hell. Not that its unexpected when you work at a bank, of course.

Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier

#232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do in fact work in a bank and know a person who works on DigID. I wouldn't say incompetency is the word, but there is something ... special about the people and their skills here. >high availability oh yeah, oh noes.

I get what you mean. I worked for a private bank in NL for a bit. Everyone has something special, but we all had a common factor of being in bureaucracy hell. Not that its unexpected when you work at a bank, of course.

I surprisingly don't see any bureaucratic hell and I'm always a bit confused what people even mean when they say that. If anything, I feel the least bureaucratic pressure compared to previous 15+ years. But maybe that's me being a bit special.

Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier

#233
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody gets fired from hiring Kyndryl.

They’re not doing too great atm: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/topstocks/kyndryl-s-stock-is...

As are all consulting firms, to ve fair

Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier

#234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How hard can it be to hire a competent engineer when you hire for a bank or a government.

Techs trying to solve the tech problem. Governments need it to be solved by a team (either within the government or a vendor company) because it is the non-tech things that are missing from the open source solution: high availability / redundancy, hosting, backups, business continuity, audits, someone to grill when there is a leak. The people who work in government and banks aren’t incompetent. They are just like you…

> high availability / redundancy, hosting, backups, business continuity, audits, someone to grill when there is a leak.

All but one of these is a tech problem though.

Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier

#235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Germany as well

Nope. You have to possess a valid ID or passport, but you are not required to carry it. Keeping it at home is perfectly fine. Carrying it is practical and most Germans do carry their ID, but it's not a requirement.

Why carrying it is practical? What is it used for?

The only time I need my ID is during elections, but I can also show the one I have in our government produced app.

Older people in Poland do carry those, mostly out of some kind of habit and some kind of fear that police might need it. I can drive a car and get a speeding ticket, and all I need police to know is my ID number (it is not the identifier of my identity card), which I know by hard, it consists of my birth date plus 5 semi-random numbers). I don't need my ID, my driving license nor my insurance data - everything is located in police database based on my ID number (or my license plate).

Bad sides of carrying it is that you might loose it, and that is a PITA, because you need to block it right away (someone might take a loan with it, happens I kid you not) by calling your bank or similar service.

So I take it out from my wallet (which I don't carry also) only when I go to the airport.

Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier

#236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Germany as well

What are the penalties for not doing so? I'm always amazed at the willingness of Europeans to follow rules like these, regardless of their impact on personal sovereignty. People in Finland were the most extreme example of this behavior that I've ever encountered. People would look like you murdered a child for jaywalking in Helsinki.

maybe you can help by writing a threat scenario. And I can help if it really occurs.

(but buying alcohol you need also a personal document)

Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier

#237
post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate on what you find problematic about the Estonian ID stack?

Disclaimer: I have more exposure to Ukrainian variation of this setup (see jkurwa) than to actual Estonian and extrapolate a bit from what I heard from people. Half of this may be outdated or wrong, but I believe that the general vibe is correct. From what I know about Estonian eID stack, they use traditional PKI to the full extent -- LDAP, PKI, OCSP, all the standard designs from the 90ies and then internally (for u…

I appreciate your comment, but don't bother complaining about moderation. It isn't an interesting read.

Why not use the cert on the ID to sign your own private key in the chain? That way, you can revoke the keypair should the need arise. The private key on the ID card would be valid for as long as the ID card is valid (here in NL: 18+, 10 years; 18- 5 years). And you can use each keypair for whatever. The benefit (and possible disadvantage) is the government knows you are you.

Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier

#238
post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue was less privacy concerns, and more "hey lets not hand over one of the most critical pieces of infrastructure to a potentially hostile state". DigID is the user authentication platform for basically every government site in The Netherlands. A foreign government could use sanctions to pressure Dutch individuals to comply by limiting access to it.

More broadly, I think it's "let's not hand over essential infrastructure to any foreign state". Friendly or not, it doesn't matter. Private companies ought to have the freedom to do business with whomever they like, but for essential public services, better to assume essential public infrastructure simply must not be offshored at all.

I don't know about that. I don't think it'd have been a major issue in the country if it were a Belgian or German takeover. It may still not have been desirable, but I doubt the government would have stepped in like they did here.

Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier

#239

> "The politicization of this process has overshadowed the clear and important benefits this transaction would have brought to Solvinity's customers and Dutch citizens." That is unbelievably rich. It's politicians job to protect the privacy and interests of its citizens. Must be a strange idea for the US these days.

> It's politicians job to protect the privacy and interests of its citizens. So...they outsource to Logius, who then hires Solvinity to give two for-profit corps access to your information? Why are the blocking the acquisition entirely and not... ya know, hosting their own infrastructure?

> hosting their own infrastructure?

Because they're not a tech company and they're aware of that so they place bidding contractors to specialists in the field who offer a proposal and bid. This is nothing new.

Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier

#240

The subtitle “Across Europe, there have been increased concerns about the bloc’s reliance on American tech.” is false and really an economic chamber. The author has no basis for this claim, factually or otherwise .. maybe a small tiny group would love to see this happen, but EU is happy like rest of the world minus China to enjoy the products made by great American software companies.

https://www.ad.nl/politiek/blokkade-overname-digid-valt-slec...

This page includes a video of our Prime Minister, in English. You should listen to what he says. The time of depending on America's security umbrella is over.

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