Skatteverket halts cloud migration over security concerns

Skatteverket has paused plans to move part of its email traffic to an American cloud service together with Valmyndigheten. The decision follows criticism from, among others, the Swedish Police Authority, Ekot reports.

The authorities currently use a shared email network that meets specific security requirements. Skatteverket had planned to leave the network in October and instead use a commercial cloud service. The Swedish Police Authority opposed the change, arguing that the new system must meet the same security requirements as the existing network.

According to Ekot, more than 100,000 emails passed between the Swedish Police Authority and Skatteverket during the first five months of the year. Much of the communication concerned law enforcement, including intelligence operations and personal protection.

After contacts between the authorities during the summer, Skatteverket has stopped the planned rollout. The agency says it will analyse possible ways forward together with other affected authorities.

Security expert André Catry told Ekot that the situation illustrates problems that can arise when authorities make different assessments of what information can be handled in cloud services. In his view, those differences risk making information exchange between authorities more difficult.