Government agencies and organizations are no longer allowed to transfer their data to cloud services such as Google and Amazon for the time being. The cloud transition has been put on hold until the House of Representatives debates it. State Secretary for Digitalization Zsolt Szabó recently decided so.
According to the secretary of state, there is limited oversight about which government services use cloud services and from which provider. "When you use cloud services, you put your data on someone else's computer," explains Bart Jacobs. He is a professor of cybersecurity at Radboud University Nijmegen. "Basically, that's a bad idea."
Hilhorst, Jacobs and former AIVD supervisor Bert Hubert also consider rising geopolitical tensions with the United States a risk factor. "If we are completely dependent on the services of American clouds, we have to watch our words," Hubert argues. "Trump is not shying away from introducing sanctions and soon he may also use American cloud services in the process." The three experts refer to the U.S. Cloud Act. With this law, the White House can force American cloud providers to transfer data. This can be done even if it is stored in U.S. data centers on E.U. soil.
Click here for the Secretary of State's letter to the House of Representatives.
