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A German state is ditching Windows and Microsoft Office for Linux and LibreOffice on the 30,000 PCs it uses for local government functions (www.theregister.com)

submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Schleswig-Holstein, Germany's most northern state, is starting its switch from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice, and is planning to move from Windows to Linux on the 30,000 PCs it uses for local government functions.

Concerns over data security are also front and center in the Minister-President's statement, especially data that may make its way to other countries. Back in 2021, when the transition plans were first being drawn up, the hardware requirements for Windows 11 were also mentioned as a reason to move away from Microsoft.

Saunders noted that "the reasons for switching to Linux and LibreOffice are different today. Back when LiMux started, it was mostly seen as a way to save money. Now the focus is far more on data protection, privacy and security. Consider that the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) recently found that the European Commission's use of Microsoft 365 breaches data protection law for EU institutions and bodies."

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[–] [email protected] -4 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

In the enterprise space, Windows isn't an issue at all.

This is because enterprise manages security properly - layered, minimum perms to perform a task, etc.

Windows laptops have been tightly locked down since the early 2000's, including USB ports.

I've never seen a virus or malware on a machine in enterprise, and if it were to occur, the most it can damage is the local machine, as network shares are minimal (most data is kept in databases), the shares with write access are limited to small user groups, etc.

Users simply lack permissions to change stuff, so malware lacks it too.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Have you been near some sort of news in the last years? Corporations using windows get hacked regularly and they are far off from having everything in a database somewhere. You have no fucking clue. What you are describing is the dream of corporate security newbies, but no big corporation let alone some state government is anywhere close to that.

They have massive shares, where all the people can read and overwrite everything, they open all attachments directly on their machine and click away all warnings without reading them. (Who needs USB if you can mail malware directly?)

This is hell and in Germany dozens of smaller or bigger government networks were hacked and massive amounts of data encrypted last year alone.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

I can from personal experience that there is a huge push to get much more secure in the local government space in the US, including adhering to NIST 800-53, and be audited on it. It's not foolproof, but it's a much needed step forward towards preventing big events becoming breaches. But if they are a breach they'll be lower impact. It's painful to get there, but I've been involved heavily in the conversion in policies and procedures to get there.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

This is because enterprise manages security properly - layered, minimum perms to perform a task, etc.

Apparently Microsoft itself isn't Enterprise?

I’ve never seen a virus or malware on a machine in enterprise...

Change Healthcare - https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/change-healthcare-hack-what-you-need-to-know/ar-BB1kvg2t

MGM Grand - https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/05/business/mgm-100-million-hit-data-breach/index.html

HP Enterprise - https://apnews.com/article/russian-hackers-hewlett-packard-enterprise-microsoft-sec-breach-cozy-bear-d4e88ded0a47d010216e11f41132f72c

Here's 12 more - https://www.kaspersky.com/blog/ransowmare-attacks-in-2023/50634/

Users simply lack permissions to change stuff, so malware lacks it too.

Oh something is lacking in your world and I'm not talking about permissions.