Dutch experts warn US takeover of DigiD platform poses security risks | Hacker News Reader

Dutch experts warn US takeover of DigiD platform poses security risks

nltimes.nl

88 pointsCalRobert25 comments

There is a banner warning at the DigiD website (in dutch) about this: https://www.digid.nl/solvinity

One of the FAQ questions is: Will an American company soon be able to view my data?

This tells a lot about US street cred atm. This was added to the website not because of niche political activism but by a sizeable concern of the population.

Says everything that the answer they put there doesn't begin with "No." but instead weasels around it.

Time to ditch DigiD? Unfortunately we are locked in as citizens.

Maybe they should open up 'eHerkenning' to citizens as well instead of only companies. And a bit more competition should be good, like use your bank to sign-in into government services.

eHerkenning cost 100eur/user/year for the most basic functionality. That’s a significant amount to pay for by the government

That is why the suggestion for competition is there.

DigiD is a bit less indeed, estimation: €239M GDI-budget / ~17M users ≈ ~€14 per user per year.

It is not about the money there is so much legislation about government procurement. Unfortunately we cannot declare the US as a hostile nation.

It’s 15-25 and you get a free grant of 25 per year

The alternatives iDIN and eHerkenning are commercial right? I know iDIN is from the banks and I definitely don't trust them. Unfortunately you can't do without them in today's society but I won't use them for this.

DigiD should just remain a government operation.

No, they should move DigiD out of that data center.

Pretty much all critical Dutch gov services are located in sovereign data centres across the Netherlands. Why they can't do it with DigiD baffles me. Especially because it is (or at least used to be) based on a plain Java and Oracle stack.

The Dutch sold nexperia to the Chinese, recently decided that going to MS software for their tax division is the best option and now this. Higher ups seem to really be sleeping at the wheel.

Netherlands as well as Denmark went more into MS than some other countries. Turns out it was bad choice.

I wonder why people look at this like a deer in the headlights. Replace Solvinity/Kyndryl with another 'provider'. Hire some competent people to migrate and operate it.

It's completely unacceptable and unconscionable for European countries to transfer any part of their critical infrastructure to the US after the US have already weaponised existing dependencies- for example putting the ICC under sanctions and blocking their access to Microsoft services. The cowardice of EU countries is really disgusting.

>blocking their access to Microsoft services.

Really? So basically any organisation in any country that the current or future US administration may be hostile to (read everyone) should now be looking for an alternative. Seems short sighted on the USs end. Again.

The US company only does software development, hosting is still done by Logius in NL.

That doesn’t make a difference though because of the cloud act

The infrstructure is currently run by the Brits?

If not DigiD, then what else would even qualify for 'SECRET NOFORN' ?

Ah Solvinity is a supplier, but DigiD itself is run on dutch govt servers. Ok, that's a bit better at least.

The Ministry of Defense has their own authentication stuff. DigiD is for citizens to communicate with the government.

They can already request DigiD info given a good reason.

i wonder when we will get US passports over here -_-

This is disgusting. Seriously, how is this even allowed?

“Our government does not want to offend the Americans because it is afraid of reprisals,” -- from the article

We've got a specific laws against the crimes by people involved here, including the named minister - it's called "treason".

This makes no sense

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