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Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier

politico.eu

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Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier

#41

Post by hvb2 »

j_maffe wrote: post #32
tcp_handshaker wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Finally! You are behind the curve. You read here first. Lets revisit this comment in 2 years... This will be overturned by both Dutch and European courts after the company appeals, and specially after Mark Rutte Daddy calls. The only purpose of this action is for the Dutch government to save face, and its for internal consumption. They already have the internal legal advice stating this, hidden away in some closet…

> Mark Rutte Daddy calls Mark Rutte, the chief of NATO and ex-PM, that has nothing to do with civilian tech? Can we please leave unfounded conspiracy theories to Reddit?

Does that sound outlandish to you? It doesn't to me...

It's probably something he would use as 'change' to resolve something unrelated with NATO. Then he can sell how well he's keeping NATO together

Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier

#42

Post by danslo »

kleiba2 wrote: post #40
danslo wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DigiD itself is government-owned, but its infrastructure is managed by Solvinity (a private company). Not really different from the US gov running half its stack on AWS.

Okay, maybe let's not take the US as a point of comparison.

Fine. Not really different from most governments relying on private suppliers to manage their infrastructure.

Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier

#43

Post by twjdeboer »

mortarion wrote: post #23
mkj wrote: post #5

Solvinity is a pretty terrible company name.

We're terrible at company and brand naming here in Europe. Just look at the "Wero" payment solution (formerly/currently iDeal). Like, who the hell came up with that stupid name? The list of stupid European company names and product names are endless.

I agree, the Dutch iDeal was probably the better name. However I'm not sure if this is an uniquely European problem. Wero's counterpart 'Zelle' doesn't seem to be that much better of a name.

Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier

#44

Post by shiandow »

NoahZuniga wrote: post #37
jorvi wrote: post #26

Earlier 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…

Logius is actually not a company but a part of the dutch (national) goverment.

In that case we can indeed safely assume they have no technical knowledge.

Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier

#45

Post by Epskampie »

petcat wrote: post #14
NietTim wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not some sort of company making unique tech, it's a company handling some of the most the vital infrastructure for our government, you can imagine the privacy concerns. Completely different case

Sure, but the point is that it's tit-for-tat. This US administration is petty.

All the more reason to block vital stuff going to the US. They cannot be trusted anymore.

Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier

#46

Post by mcv »

jorvi wrote: post #26
mcv wrote: 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…

How can you be sure that Solvinity can't access the data if Logius doesn't know how the current stack works? 5+ years to migrate sounds really bad.

Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier

#47

Post by mcv »

tcp_handshaker wrote: post #29
mcv wrote: 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…

>> Finally! You are behind the curve. You read here first. Lets revisit this comment in 2 years... This will be overturned by both Dutch and European courts after the company appeals, and specially after Mark Rutte Daddy calls. The only purpose of this action is for the Dutch government to save face, and its for internal consumption. They already have the internal legal advice stating this, hidden away in some closet…

> This will also be the core legal argument by the appealing company. They will argue that the decision was politicized, insufficiently reasoned, or disproportionate because binding technical/legal safeguards would have solved the risks... And they will use as example, the diplomatic service extensive use of Microsoft

How would that argument support a sale to the US? It sounds like the perfect argument against it. Those technical/legal safeguards clearly didn't work for Microsoft either.

Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier

#48

Post by Deukhoofd »

thisislife2 wrote: post #28

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).

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.

Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier

#49

Post by tcp_handshaker »

mcv wrote: post #47
tcp_handshaker wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Finally! You are behind the curve. You read here first. Lets revisit this comment in 2 years... This will be overturned by both Dutch and European courts after the company appeals, and specially after Mark Rutte Daddy calls. The only purpose of this action is for the Dutch government to save face, and its for internal consumption. They already have the internal legal advice stating this, hidden away in some closet…

> This will also be the core legal argument by the appealing company. They will argue that the decision was politicized, insufficiently reasoned, or disproportionate because binding technical/legal safeguards would have solved the risks... And they will use as example, the diplomatic service extensive use of Microsoft How would that argument support a sale to the US? It sounds like the perfect argument against it. Th…

You are using logic to argue for the best and most correct outcome, I am using logic, to state how and why, this will play the way it will...

Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier

#50

Post by mcv »

hvb2 wrote: post #24
monegator wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm sure there was some negotiations which i'm sure the current administration would honour There should be grave consequences alone for the fact that the goverment acted against the parliament

> which i'm sure the current administration would honour It would've been the same administration as the one doing the negotiations, so I would assume yes. > There should be grave consequences alone for the fact that the goverment acted against the parliament In general I think there's a pretty good understanding between the legislative branch and the executive branch. The Netherlands has always had coalitions. Also,…

There are certainly countries that have it worse, but Netherland has some weird political games being played sometimes.
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