4 ms·

In the Netherlands it came to light a lot of leaders are using private email because it is more easy to use than secure email. This shows not a lot of leaders

In the Netherlands it came to light a lot of leaders are using private email because it is more easy to use than secure email. This shows not a lot of leaders are aware of the security risks of using conventional communication.

mschuster91 4y ago
> In the Netherlands it came to light a lot of leaders are using private email because it is more easy to use than secure email. Or rather, because it is more easy to circumvent requirements of public record and archival laws. What I keep asking myself in any case... why is the European Union unable or unwilling to fund an open source software suite that covers all needs of a modern IT environment? For literally everything that's needed, there are open source solutions - Firefox and Thunderbird for communication, LibreOffice for office needs, AOSP for phones, Linux as an OS, Samba for managing PCs and laptops... that would be a real, tangible benefit for hundreds of millions of people, not to mention a huge saving in costs for software licenses.
- robotnikman 4y ago
  The big hole I think that's missing is something to manage policies for all those device and enforce them, as well as roaming profile and account management. Microsoft basically has a monopoly on this right now with Active Directory. I can't think of any open source projects off the top of my head which offer something similar. For a modern IT environment used by a business, such a system is absolutely necessary
  - mschuster91 4y ago
    You can absolutely run GPOs using Samba as a DC if your clients are Windows, same for profile and account management. For a client-side GPO replacement on Linux and macOS one can use Ansible.
- zx85wes 4y ago
  Turns out there aren't any requirements in the Netherlands, just 'advice'. Regarding the EU and costs : no-one there cares about cost. They just pass them on to taxpayers.
  - KarlKemp 4y ago
    The EU doesn't have the power of taxation.
    - the_biot 4y ago
      That is entirely irrelevant to the point. All the money consumed by EU instutions is taxpayer money. Not a constructive comment.
      - KarlKemp 4y ago
        It speaks directly to the point that "they" decide to waste money and then turn around and get it from the taxpayer. As long as "they" is the EU, they cannot decide to get more money from the taxpayer. If "they" waste it, "they" have to cut it somewhere else in the budget.
  - mschuster91 4y ago
    > Regarding the EU and costs : no-one there cares about cost. They absolutely do care about stuff where ordinary people can save money, thanks to the EU we got a hard cap on CC fees (0.3%!) and free phone roaming EU-wide, for example. Providing a basic computer software environment would save a lot of money for the population and especially it would also massively reduce electronic waste and lock-in effects. Windows 11 for example won't run on machines without TPMs enabled [1]. [1] https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/enable-tpm-2-0-on-your-pc-1fd5a332-360d-4f46-a1e7-ae6b0c90645c https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/enable-tpm-2-0-o...
- the_biot 4y ago
  Why would that be the EU's job? You might argue for EU funds that nudge things in a certain direction -- ubiquitous and secure encryption, say -- but general software development really is not in the EU's remit.
  - mschuster91 4y ago
    > Why would that be the EU's job? Reducing electronic waste is a key issue that the EU will need to tackle rather sooner than later. At the moment, Windows 11 won't run on old computers without TPM 2.0, which will render all PCs without one to either electronic waste or a constant security threat despite that the machines could otherwise run Linux perfectly fine - but no one outside of a bunch of nerds will run Linux on them because the software state of desktop Linux is just abysmal compared to the well-polished offerings of Apple and Microsoft. Additionally, right now almost all economic and public activity depends on Microsoft to an unhealthy degree. We couldn't even get Microsoft to supply GDPR-compliant versions of MS Teams for schools during the pandemic, it's extremely hard to disable telemetry on anything Microsoft. Microsoft simply does whatever the fuck it wants and can get away with it, simply because there is no meaningful competition for anything they offer. And that dependency is extremely bad - just imagine the 45th coming back as the 47th in two years. The CoJ tore down two "agreements" for data transfer already because it cannot be assured that the US government does not steal our data (or worse, serve us malware) based on a secret NSL. Europe needs independence, not just from Russia and China where it's long overdue, but also from the US.
- Y-bar 4y ago
  > why is the European Union unable or unwilling to fund an open source software suite They are actually funding and working on it: https://ec.europa.eu/info/departments/informatics/open-source-software-strategy_en https://ec.europa.eu/info/departments/informatics/open-sourc...
  - mschuster91 4y ago
    They don't have much to show for it though, other than the infamous GAIA-X association which got (as expected...) promptly captured by the US tech industry including Palantir of all companies. A goddamn joke, but what else can be expected when the one to initiate it was Peter f...ing Altmaier of Germany's CDU infamy?! [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GAIA-X https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GAIA-X

mschuster91 4y ago

> In the Netherlands it came to light a lot of leaders are using private email because it is more easy to use than secure email. Or rather, because it is more easy to circumvent requirements of public record and archival laws. What I keep asking myself in any case... why is the European Union unable or unwilling to fund an open source software suite that covers all needs of a modern IT environment? For literally everything that's needed, there are open source solutions - Firefox and Thunderbird for communication, LibreOffice for office needs, AOSP for phones, Linux as an OS, Samba for managing PCs and laptops... that would be a real, tangible benefit for hundreds of millions of people, not to mention a huge saving in costs for software licenses.

robotnikman 4y ago
The big hole I think that's missing is something to manage policies for all those device and enforce them, as well as roaming profile and account management. Microsoft basically has a monopoly on this right now with Active Directory. I can't think of any open source projects off the top of my head which offer something similar. For a modern IT environment used by a business, such a system is absolutely necessary
- mschuster91 4y ago
  You can absolutely run GPOs using Samba as a DC if your clients are Windows, same for profile and account management. For a client-side GPO replacement on Linux and macOS one can use Ansible.
zx85wes 4y ago
Turns out there aren't any requirements in the Netherlands, just 'advice'. Regarding the EU and costs : no-one there cares about cost. They just pass them on to taxpayers.
- KarlKemp 4y ago
  The EU doesn't have the power of taxation.
  - the_biot 4y ago
    That is entirely irrelevant to the point. All the money consumed by EU instutions is taxpayer money. Not a constructive comment.
    - KarlKemp 4y ago
      It speaks directly to the point that "they" decide to waste money and then turn around and get it from the taxpayer. As long as "they" is the EU, they cannot decide to get more money from the taxpayer. If "they" waste it, "they" have to cut it somewhere else in the budget.
- mschuster91 4y ago
  > Regarding the EU and costs : no-one there cares about cost. They absolutely do care about stuff where ordinary people can save money, thanks to the EU we got a hard cap on CC fees (0.3%!) and free phone roaming EU-wide, for example. Providing a basic computer software environment would save a lot of money for the population and especially it would also massively reduce electronic waste and lock-in effects. Windows 11 for example won't run on machines without TPMs enabled [1]. [1] https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/enable-tpm-2-0-on-your-pc-1fd5a332-360d-4f46-a1e7-ae6b0c90645c https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/enable-tpm-2-0-o...
the_biot 4y ago
Why would that be the EU's job? You might argue for EU funds that nudge things in a certain direction -- ubiquitous and secure encryption, say -- but general software development really is not in the EU's remit.
- mschuster91 4y ago
  > Why would that be the EU's job? Reducing electronic waste is a key issue that the EU will need to tackle rather sooner than later. At the moment, Windows 11 won't run on old computers without TPM 2.0, which will render all PCs without one to either electronic waste or a constant security threat despite that the machines could otherwise run Linux perfectly fine - but no one outside of a bunch of nerds will run Linux on them because the software state of desktop Linux is just abysmal compared to the well-polished offerings of Apple and Microsoft. Additionally, right now almost all economic and public activity depends on Microsoft to an unhealthy degree. We couldn't even get Microsoft to supply GDPR-compliant versions of MS Teams for schools during the pandemic, it's extremely hard to disable telemetry on anything Microsoft. Microsoft simply does whatever the fuck it wants and can get away with it, simply because there is no meaningful competition for anything they offer. And that dependency is extremely bad - just imagine the 45th coming back as the 47th in two years. The CoJ tore down two "agreements" for data transfer already because it cannot be assured that the US government does not steal our data (or worse, serve us malware) based on a secret NSL. Europe needs independence, not just from Russia and China where it's long overdue, but also from the US.
Y-bar 4y ago
> why is the European Union unable or unwilling to fund an open source software suite They are actually funding and working on it: https://ec.europa.eu/info/departments/informatics/open-source-software-strategy_en https://ec.europa.eu/info/departments/informatics/open-sourc...
- mschuster91 4y ago
  They don't have much to show for it though, other than the infamous GAIA-X association which got (as expected...) promptly captured by the US tech industry including Palantir of all companies. A goddamn joke, but what else can be expected when the one to initiate it was Peter f...ing Altmaier of Germany's CDU infamy?! [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GAIA-X https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GAIA-X