The last few weeks have been sort of an eye-opener for many. With the current government in the USA tearing down everything and all that used to be considered granted in the past… let me put it like this:

The world order we have known is no more. It’s gone. Whether it is a good or a bad thing in general is to be considered by future generations. Fact is: It’s done, it’s gone.

But there are some things around this that make me wonder: Where is the outrage?

Let me put it that way and pick just a few actions of the current US Government that recently happened.

  • The dismantling of CISA:

This has a major impact on security research and the way we get informed about security leaks. No, they are not (yet?) gone. But they have been clearly stripped down. And with the dismantling of the “anti spy branch” that held a close watch on the activities originating countries like Russia, China and North Korea this has a real impact on our daily business in the way that we now are completely on ourselves. Once more, the Kissinger Question (whom to call in Europe) is more actual than before. This leads to more (often unpaid) work and since no European state has ever had the means in terms of the gathering of Intelligence, the overall quality, at least at the moment, has undeniably gone down the gutter.

  • Signal-Gate:

While it is not really a new thing that high ranking politicians have sought their way around existing rules (heck, many of them have made their Wealth bending laws and getting away with it – what do you expect?), the current “Breach” goes a bit deeper. The US Government has clearly shown (by their lack of actions in order to bring light into the matter and cease unsanctioned means of communications for high-stake intelligence operations) that:

  • a) They do not care about Security
  • b) They do not understand what Privacy really is
  • c) They do not care about compliance
  • d) They are only worried about how to save their own “integrity” – an be it while throwing other people under the bus. And no, they are not really picky in choosing.

Signal-Gate probably has just been a glimpse of what’s going on behind closed doors. I do not want to know (lie!) what requests those Government-Agencies are handing out to the big Cloud- or OS Providers. I believe we would be in for a unpleasant surprise if we knew. The outcry would be deafening.

Nevertheless: We can imagine.

And since we can imagine we should take action – which is clearly more difficult and might be unpleasant in the beginning. Still: We should be aware that we have to take back what belongs to us: Our Data. Our Privacy. We need to raise our Voice. It’s a long way to go – but I, at least and finally, see some small flowers peeking into the light.

  • Current observations

We have had (astonishingly) many calls about how to proceed in the future and how to get rid of certain US-Based Services.

Here is what we have observed in the last few weeks with the try of an outlook:

While many countries in Europe try to find ways to mitigate their dependency from US-Based Services (i.e. Azure, AWS) some countries do have heard the bells – but they do not have a real answer.

The Germans, for Example, in their latest statement have filled each an every “uncertainty” or unknownness with the “AI-Buzzword” (the Coalition Contract can be read here, a strikingly precise comment is to be found here (in german) ).

The British (whilst no longer being in the EU must be considered a European State nevertheless) have ongoing fantasies about total surveillance.

The French have, at least at the moment, not really much to provide (unless it’s pleasing the Academie Française enough). On the other hand they have never had that a high adoption rate of US Services – they often cook their own little soup. In the private sector they simply use what is the easiest.

Italy thinks it is far away that nobody will do them anything – and while their head of state is flirting with Mr. Musk the outcome is to be awaited.

Turkey has their own problems (i.e. people using their mobiles to organise protests).

The Scandinavians have relatively strict laws regarding data security; nevertheless they often are a bit opportunistic when it comes to the usage of (US-) Cloud-Services. They do have large datacenters – but most of them are owned by the big three from the US of A. Still: They do have *VERY* close monitoring over those activities.

Austria… has bigger Fish (Benkos) to Fry (and besides has a long tradition of major f-ups honoring all kinds of contracts). In addition, their political course can be described as being mostly russia friendly – as long as they can buy cheap gas. They probably won’t adhere to the sanctions longer than ever needed. The Swiss are unsure where to go at the moment but look what’s in for them depending how they decide. Status Quo, so far.

The Baltic States, Slovenia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic are a bit like the Scandinavians – but they do not really fancy US Services from a cost perspective. The adoption of OSS is much higher there as it seems.

Poland… is currently trying to strengthen it’s military forces. They do not want to become part of the Russian Empire again. Other than that this country is manufacturing place for many US companies. I don’t read too much about activities in Poland but I have been told that they are trying to get independent from US Services, too.

Hungary, much like Poland, is in a bit of a Pickle: On one hand their Government seems to be rather willing to cooperate with Russia. On the other hand they do have quite a lot of US Companies that manufacture their Appliances there. And: Many Callcenters (i.E. Swisscom) are at least partially operated from Hungary. If their IT Strategy is as opportunistic as their governance otherwise it will be difficult to predict what the outcome will be. It seems like they are just “there for the Money”.

All in all: It’s an exciting time to live in – but partially not in a good way.

Time will tell what’s going to happen. But before we find out the hard way: Consider the options, please.