Digital sovereignty is real in Europe. The UK? Not so much OPINION Sick of relying on proprietary programs and American software giants and hyperclouds? Join the digital sovereignty revolution. It really is the smart thing to do. Honestly, with Donald Trump calling the shots, who knows what he'll do next? Demand that American companies stop providing services to European companies …
It's not just a question of potentially losing access to American tech resources. There is also the fact that the US government can use the CLOUD Act to demand access to any and all data held by any US corporation, regardless of where in the world the data is physically held. Which is fine, if you completely trust Trump not to abuse that power. Hmm...
It's not just the Cloud Act, that's just the latest one. There are quite a few more laws that together amount to an almost open door policy to any data held by a US entity.
And that's assuming they even stick to the law in the first place. In the Trump era, laws appear to be pretty much optional, vague guidelines that should absolutely not get in the way of profit, whatever the impact on people, environment or anything else.
Pretty much all UK government infrastructure running on US service providers is likely unlawful. They'll just say "the risk is minimal" and hand wave it. But what we really need is national inquiry and get people who created this mess to face justice. They forgot they are running the country, not a coffee shop.
We were nearly there.
Then, Tony Blair became PM and the first thing he did was call his mate Bill Gates, and that was that. I recall there being quite a ruckus because he was WAY too close to Microsoft, and it became clear that MS was thus embedding itself as fast as possible in UK government systems.
Around the same time (I think, it's a while back), UK schools were warned by all and sundry that no, Microsoft was not benevolent towards education, it was merely following an entrapment process to get everyone to use MS products - that edu discount would not last. But no, those dumb tech people could not possible have a clue. Lo and behold, once the lock in was complete the educational discount vanished and a lot of educational wailing was heard. By giving back a tiny slice of those proceeds one Bill Gates got his name on some University building. You could say he got a knighthood for knowing how to milk UK's educational budget.
It's been downhill ever since.
once the last government wound down Digital Service and moved us back towards a reliance on Office 365 Azure and AWS based on out dated principles or trust in our "Special Relationship" we were stuffed. Shame our Government has sleep walked into this and there is still a feeling it will all get better later and frankly the rest of Europe is waking up to this pipe dream.
but their post civil-service directorships.
Hey Nick Clegg... I'm looking at you for starters.
Err.. Clegg was never a Civil Servant. He was a Government minister..
(Not to say that there isn't an element of cross-fertilisation between senior civil servants and industry!)
but also civil service just going along with this without any objection
*Sigh*.
Not this again. It's not like the Civil Service have any realistic option of objecting or demurring. It exists to carry out the will of Parliament as expressed by the Crown Ministers.
Just what is you beef with the CS anyway? Annoyed that our pittance of a wage is balanced by a good pension? Irritated at your thought that civil servants 'have a job for life' (once maybe, certainly not now) or annoyed because one refused you planning permission or allowed a parking fine to go through?
Whatever the cause, it's fairly tedious. And makes you look like a Reform voter.
Self evidently Andy will get a some new AWS and Azure zones built. There must be somewhere in Manchester its owner Sheikh Mansour wants shot of for some Itan War ready cash or some slag heaps near Wigan not cleared yet?
AWS: EU-Manc-1. EU-Make-1
Azure: Manchester Central 1 paired with Makerfield Central 1
Job done:
Step 1: Get complete control over your data (irrespective of the software licence)
Step 2: Move to non-US software licences (e.g. open source)
If you perform Step 2 first.................so what? Without Step 1 you do not have any "sovereign" control!
....and of course the article fails to mention Palantir or Peter Thiel!
Sigh!
It's not just software licences. Many government services are hosted on AWS and other US run platforms. This means regardless of what software they run, the AWS can be compelled to grab all the data they can without notifying UK government of the fact. The fact data centre is in the UK has no bearing on this.
Quote: " Laws modeled after the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) make reverse-engineering, modifying firmware, or bypassing access controls a criminal offense."
So......I am the owner of some data somewhere. I NEVER bypass access controls to get at MY data.......after all it is my data.
How can it be a "criminal offense" for me to write a program to copy my data to some other location?
The Linux kernel is run out of the US by a Finnish-born, US citizen. So your FOSS is likely to be running at heart on a kernel that the orange goblin has legal oversight and control of.
For core activities, use US tech all you want - Windows 98 and MS Works off a 90s magazine cover disk if you want. But once it is working, never connect it to the internet again. No SaaS, no cloud, no AI. Run it on prem. It cannot be hacked, it never needs to go through a Windows update, and it cannot be turned off by orange goblins. If it works on day 1, it will keep working.
Move as much of your tech as you can offline. As long as you have a viable tech-free Plan B for your online interactions, you can deal with whatever happens.
> The Linux kernel is run out of the US by a Finnish-born, US citizen. So your FOSS is likely to be running at heart on a kernel that the orange goblin has legal oversight and control of.
How is that a problem? The code is open. If the US government forces backdoors into Linux they will be detectable and stripped out by distros. The same for anything else. A Linux install cannot be turned off remotely.
Only if you are [redacted] enough to allow ssh root access to a non local connection.
Here's a tip for you.... Run a firewall and don't open any ports that you don't need too. My website server has three ports open. Two for http/https and another for a VPN and a batch job controls the 2 hours a day that the VPN service is active and the port is open. No root or sudo access from outside. you have to login to an account first and then then access root commands. That's only the tip of the iceberg.
Other users will have different solutions. It is not rocket science to secure a Linux system.
Windows is another matter entirely. With all that phoning home of your data.... Just air gap every Win10/Win11 system. you know it makes sense.
"If the US government forces backdoors into Linux they will be detectable and stripped out by distros."
Nope. Those distros didn't strip out the glaringly obvious backdoor in liblzma that created an epic security hole in systemd a couple of years ago.
BTW, a well designed backdoor will be almost impossible to detect. Read Ken Thompson's "Reflections on Trusting Trust" paper from the 1980s.
It's a pity they chose the platform they did for their petition. It might enable them t have a nice graphic on it but it can and will be ignored. Placing it on https://petition.parliament.uk/ would make far more sense because it it were to gether sufficient signatures there it would have to be debated in Parliament.
Which raises a related issue. The Leader of the Opposition is well qualified to ask informed and pointed questions about this at PM's questions. Why doesn't she? Is anyone here a constituent of hers who could raise it with her?
The leader of the opposition is a pound-shop Farage, fixated on re-occupying all the territory he stole by outdoing him on the nasty factor.
I don't think she is aware of the problem, because for her and the Conservatives generally, everything American is automatically perfect. Special relationship ;-)
Trump would soon see that she is more intelligent than him (not that difficult) and we all know that the Orange Genuis hates intelligent black women. He'd insult her to her face because he does not care about how others see him. He knows that he's the most brilliant and intelligent man ever to walk on this planet. He was told from an early age that he can never be wrong about anything. (remember how he tried to move the path of a Hurricane with a sharpie? That is a Red Sea/Moses event if ever I saw one)
I wonder how much time and money would be saved, in government and industry, if Word (and LibreOffice) was replaced by WordStar/WP51 or even Wordwise in ROM on an 8bit micro ?
You're writing a note to somebody 2 desks away about an internal project - you don't need to spend an hour choosing fonts for the signature or making sure margins align with corporate style guidelines.
Really?
https://crownhostingdc.co.uk/ >>>
Crown Hosting Data Centres Limited is a unique joint venture between the Cabinet Office and Ark Data Centres dedicated to serving the Public Sector. Together we are the trusted partner of the UK Government delivering increased efficiency, improved value, and transparency of Data Centre Services.
The majority owner of UK data center firm Ark is reportedly looking to sell its stake in the company. Citing people with knowledge of the matter, Reuters reports Elliott Investment Management is exploring strategic options for Ark Data Centres in a possible sale that could fetch more than £3 billion ($4 billion).
The US hedge fund has reportedly approached potential infrastructure investors and held informal talks with advisers about a potential sale of the UK firm, with a process potentially starting early next year.[...]
Elliott acquired Ark Data Centres in 2012, with European real estate investor Revcap retaining a minority stake in the unit.
Yes, really. The CLOUD act applies to governance rather than ownership. The fact that it has US owners is irrelevant as long as the US owners don't have seats on the board (which, as far as I can tell, they don't).
Also, if we're unhappy with that, what's £3bn to the government in exchange for sovereignty?
is there anything this shitty country wont sell off for a quick buck!!
India, China, Brazil, the EU working HARD to create domestic expertise in as many fields as possible. Its only the UK that seems to want to send everything away and train people from other countries to take work away from here and THEN WHINE that the kids won't fight to protectv the country!!
Any chinese spies reading - i'm looking for a job!
I literally have zero intention of ever being SC cleared again, the gov doesn't deserve the skill set. Give me a bank or hedge fund now & come another pandemic, I sure as hell won't be running round "for patriotic reasons" doing free work to set anything up!
Well, open a private window in your browser, enable google and gstatic, sign the petition and close it. what is so hard about that? If needed, do it all via a VPN and if it needs an email address, use a disposable one... You have one (or many) don't you?
answers in triplicate please.
This technique is effective when developing algorithms for sorting, multiplying large integers and performing a Fourier transform. Division is also how the Christian kingdoms perished, how England took over India and how the Western democracies will lose their voice.
Said another way, when the prosperity brought by free trade is astroturfed by an army of digital trolls, who will suffer more? The hobbits or the trolls?
This post has been deleted by its author
