Swiss Army breaks with Microsoft: "Cyber Command" relies on Open Source | heise online

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The Swiss Army is making a U-turn in its IT infrastructure. The cybersecurity experts of the Swiss Armed Forces – primarily the “Cyber Command” and the subunit for Cyber and Electromagnetic Actions (CEA) – are turning their backs on software giant Microsoft. By October, all employees of these units are to be equipped with the open-source alternative OpenDesk at their workplaces. The ambitious roadmap shows how acute the need for action is perceived in the Alpine Republic.

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According to the magazine Republik, the background to this step is a strategic shift at Microsoft. Switzerland has been cooperating with the US corporation for a long time. However, sensitive government data previously remained in its own state-run data centers. Now, the giant is increasingly forcing customers into its own cloud infrastructure. In the future, emails, documents, calendar data, or video conferences will only be accessible via the US company's servers. For the Swiss Army, a large part of whose operational data is classified as strictly confidential, this represents an incalculable security risk.

Cloud Mandate and Geopolitical Risks

According to the report, the Swiss military fears that sensitive military information could ultimately fall into the hands of the US government through this detour. The head of Cyber Command, Simon Müller, points out that Microsoft's cloud-based Office 365 package 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 for certain military contexts. The concern about hidden data leakage to foreign intelligence agencies like the NSA weighs heavily.

The current geopolitical situation, in which digital infrastructures are increasingly being instrumentalized as geopolitical weapons, adds urgency to the issue. Recent examples show how rigorously the US government keeps tech corporations on a tight leash. For instance, the US administration temporarily ordered sales bans for certain AI models abroad and forced Microsoft to hand over the email traffic of Dutch government officials.

Particularly drastic was the deactivation of user accounts of judges at the International Criminal Court following US sanctions. These examples fuel fears in Europe of arbitrary shutdown of programs or systems through a “kill switch” or aggressive licensing cost strategies.

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Advance of OpenDesk and LibreOffice

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With OpenDesk, the Swiss military is using a software package developed by the German Center for Digital Sovereignty (Zendis), which represents an open-source alternative to MS 365. The relevance of such solutions is growing throughout the German-speaking world. For example, the Austrian Armed Forces are migrating to LibreOffice. The IT system house of the Bundeswehr, BWI, has meanwhile concluded a framework agreement with Zendis for sovereign communication and collaboration software such as OpenDesk. The suite is also to be deployed in the public health service and with social insurers.

Switzerland has been strongly advocating for digital sovereignty for some time. A law in effect since the beginning of 2024 obliges the federal government to disclose the source code of authority software developed in-house. This is intended to reduce dependencies on individual software manufacturers and ensure transparency. For security reasons, the army had actually exempted parliament from this obligation. However, the Cyber Command is now voluntarily submitting to this open-source line.

Technical Hurdles and the Digital Commons

Although investigations by the civil administration in Zurich have shown that OpenDesk still has deficiencies in normal office work due to a lack of desktop apps, insufficient telephony integration, and unclear migration costs, this hardly affects the IT-savvy cyber specialists of the army. They operate the software independently in their own data centers and can make adjustments themselves.

Furthermore, the army is involved as “Swiss Defense Forces” on developer platforms like Gitlab, submits improvements for cryptography, and has already published its own open-source document search engine with Loom. According to those responsible, the goal is not only to be a consumer of the digital commons but also to actively contribute something back to the community.

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This article was originally published in

German.

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