EU Delays Voting Cybersecurity Label For Sensitive Cloud Contracts

EU postponed the voting of Cyber Security Labels. (photo: dock. pexels)

JAKARTA - International cybersecurity experts have postponed voting on EU cybersecurity labels that allow Alphabet's Amazon, Google, and Microsoft to bid for a highly sensitive EU cloud computing contract until May. This was reported by several sources on Tuesday, April 16.

The European Union wants to introduce a cybersecurity certification (EUCS) scheme to guarantee cybersecurity of cloud services and help governments and companies choose safe and reliable vendors for their cloud computing business.

However, disputes over whether strict requirements should be imposed on Big Tech in order to qualify for the highest level of EU cybersecurity labels have hampered these efforts.

Experts who met on Monday and Tuesday in Brussels, did not vote on the latest draft scheme proposed by EU cybersecurity agency, ENISA, in 2020 and modified by Belgium which currently holds the EU presidency.

After the voting of experts, the next step is the opinion of EU countries and the final decision of the European Commission.

The latest version removes sovereignty requirements from previous proposals, requiring US tech giants to form joint ventures or cooperate with EU-based companies to store and process customer data on the bloc in order to qualify for the highest level of EU cybersecurity labels.

While Big Tech welcomes the abolition of these requirements, EU cloud vendors and businesses such as Deutsche Telekom, Orange, and Airbus criticized the move, and warned about the risk of data access that violates the law by the non-EU government under their law.