The Swiss army is making a U-turn in its IT infrastructure. The cybersecurity experts of the Swiss Armed Forces – above all the “Cyber Command” and the sub-unit for cyber and electromagnetic actions (CEA) – are turning their backs on the software giant Microsoft. By October, all employees in these units should be equipped with the open-source alternative OpenDesk at their workplaces. The ambitious roadmap shows how acute the need for action is assessed in the Alpine republic.
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According to Republic magazine, the background to this step is a change in strategy at Microsoft. Switzerland has been cooperating with the US group for a long time. But so far, sensitive government data has remained in the company’s own state data centers. Now the giant is increasingly forcing customers into its own cloud infrastructure. In the future, emails, documents, calendar data or video conferences can only be accessed via the US company’s servers. For the Swiss army, much of whose operational data is classified as top secret, this represents an incalculable security risk.
Cloud compulsion and geopolitical risks
According to the report, the federal military fears that sensitive military information could ultimately end up in the hands of the US government via this detour. The head of the Cyber Command, Simon Müller, points out that Microsoft’s cloud-based Office package 365 is not suitable for an army with the highest demands on confidentiality, availability and integrity. As long as corporations are subject to laws such as the US Cloud Act, they cannot be used in certain military contexts. The concern about hidden data leaks to foreign secret services such as the NSA is serious.
The topic becomes explosive due to the current geopolitical situation, in which digital infrastructures are increasingly being exploited as geopolitical weapons. Recent examples show how rigorously the US government keeps tech companies on a leash. The US administration ordered a temporary ban on the sale of certain AI models abroad and forced Microsoft to hand over the emails of Dutch government officials.
The deactivation of the user accounts of judges of the International Criminal Court following US sanctions was particularly drastic. These examples are fueling fears in Europe of an arbitrary shutdown of programs or systems through a “kill switch” or aggressive licensing cost strategies.
Advance of OpenDesk and LibreOffice
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With OpenDesk, the Swiss military uses a software package that is developed by the German Center for Digital Sovereignty (Zendis) and represents an open-source alternative to MS 365. The relevance of such solutions is growing throughout the German-speaking region. The Austrian armed forces, for example, are migrating to LibreOffice. Meanwhile, the Bundeswehr’s IT system house BWI concluded a framework agreement with Zendis for sovereign communication and collaboration software such as OpenDesk. The suite is also intended to prove itself in the public health service and with social insurance providers.
Switzerland has been campaigning for digital sovereignty for a long time. A law that has been in force since the beginning of 2024 requires the federal government to disclose the source code of specially developed government software. This is intended to reduce dependencies on individual software manufacturers and ensure transparency. The army had actually exempted Parliament from this obligation for security reasons. However, the cyber command is now voluntarily submitting to this open source line.
Technical hurdles and the digital commons
Studies by the civil administration in Zurich have shown that OpenDesk still has deficits in normal everyday office life due to a lack of desktop apps, a lack of telephony integration and unclear migration costs. But this hardly affects the IT-savvy cyber specialists in the army. You operate the software independently in your own data centers and can make adjustments yourself.
The army is also involved as the “Swiss Defense Forces” on developer platforms such as Gitlab, is submitting improvements to cryptography and has already published its own open source document search engine, Loom. According to those responsible, it’s about not just being a consumer of the digital commons, but also actively giving something back to the community.
(nen)
