Switzerland Abandons Microsoft 365 over Data Sovereignty Concerns

Switzerland's federal government is looking to move away from Microsoft 365 due to concerns over data sovereignty and potential leaks. As part of this effort, they are testing alternative software suites that can handle their sensitive data. This decision comes as a growing trend among European countries seeking digital sovereignty.

The Swiss government will be replacing Microsoft's Office suite with alternatives such as 'Euro-Office', which is marketed as a sovereign solution for collaborative document editing. The pilot program aims to move 7% of federal admin staff and their 3,000 workstations to the new software suites. This decision is not only driven by concerns over data leaks but also rising license costs.

Professor Matthias Stürmer at Bern University of Applied Sciences expressed his concerns about the risk of data leaks from a system controlled by foreign governments. He stated that 'we know that foreign governments can access this data, this is available at any time.' This move comes after similar decisions made by France and Germany to drop Windows 10/11 in favor of Linux-based operating systems.