GoKawiilThe effort to unplug from American companies also reflects growing recognition among governments of the vulnerabilities of mainstream messaging apps for sharing sensitive information between politicians.
“Our communication currently often takes place via platforms over which we have no control,” Willemijn Aerdts, the Netherlands’ digital minister, told POLITICO in a statement. “In a world where technology is increasingly being used as a tool of power, that poses a risk.”
Brandon De Waele, the director of Belgian Secure Communications, the Belgian federal government agency in charge of its new secure app, said: “Everyone in Europe is getting more and more awake on sovereignty ... For us it’s data sovereignty.”
WhatsApp and Signal have faced cybersecurity challenges in recent weeks. Last month, dozens of cybersecurity agencies warned that Russian hacking groups were targeting political and government officials on the messengers with high-level phishing attacks.
The risks also became painfully apparent in Brussels: The European Commission told some of its most senior officials to shut down a group on messaging app Signal, POLITICO reported this month, and the EU was the victim of a string of cybersecurity breaches affecting, among other things, its mobile devices management system.
'Just not built for that'
Belgium was the latest European government to unveil an in-house secure messaging service last month, for use by public officials for sensitive but unclassified information. Members of the federal government — including Prime Minister Bart De Wever — are now encouraged to use an app called BEAM, which comes with all the features of familiar apps like WhatsApp and Signal, but which operates under the control of the government.