Philippe Latombe displays his skepticism about the ability of the Thales/Google and Orange/Capgemini/Microsoft hybrid cloud offers to embrace the “best of both worlds” in terms of the cloud. The MoDem deputy, and member of the Law Commission, attacks the S3NS trust cloud project, carried by Thales and Google, according to information from The gallery confirmed to ZDNet.
In two letters sent respectively to the National Commission for Computing and Liberties (CNIL) and to the National Agency for the Security of Information Systems (Anssi) this Monday, July 4, Philippe Latombe questions the real capacity of these future hybrid cloud offers to block extraterritorial laws. He asks the two institutions to carry out an “in-depth analysis” of the legal structure of S3NS in particular.
If he insists on S3NS, and less on Bleu, it is because Thales and Google “sold everyone during their June 30 conference that they were going to be SecNumCloud and that we had to get there as soon as possible. he explains to ZDNet. Remember that Thales and Google announced that an intermediate offer was already offered to customers who wish to switch to a locally managed infrastructure, without waiting for the S3NS offer for very sensitive data.
The referral to the CNIL also relates in part to the question of data hosting during this temporary phase, specifies the deputy to ZDNet.
“Attempt to smoke”
In his letter, of which ZDNet obtained a copy, the deputy denounces an “attempt to smoke out” the use of the term “trusted cloud” by S3NS. He believes that this expression “poses the risk of misleading buyers about the exclusive nature of this offer in view of the cloud trust label announced by the government as part of its national cloud strategy, announced on May 17, 2021. “.
To the problem of “advertising” around the expression “trusted cloud” is also added that of its definition. Philippe Latombe recalls that “the cloud in the center came after the sovereign cloud, when the State realized that the sovereign cloud was not working because of a so-called delay on the software part” says- there at ZDNet. The hybrid cloud therefore has “a lower level of protection than the sovereign cloud”, summarizes the deputy. For him, although “the hybrid response is necessary, it should not be made the key to everything”.
Philippe Latombe also shares his questions about the legal structure put in place to guard against extraterritoriality. He writes that there is “the risk of an undervaluation of the reality of the sharing of shares between Google and Thales. However, if Google has de facto control of S3NS, it will be subject to the Cloud Act”.
Premature announcements to the taste of the deputy
His criticisms also target the timing of the announcements. The S3NS offer will be operational by 2024, and yet, Philippe Latombe points out that “Thales and Google are prematurely announcing its future availability in order, by their own admission, to encourage customers to sign a service contract hosting based on Google Cloud, without the security guarantees and legal guarantees of the SecNumCloud qualification”. And to add that “customers of French hosts already qualified SecNumCloud are therefore solicited by Google on the basis of a hypothetical future offer, very uncertain at this stage, despite the assertions that are repeated to them”.
Although Philippe Latombe is essentially attacking the S3NS project, he specifies that on this point “the same goes for the rest of Orange and Capgemini, which have announced for the benefit of Microsoft the entry into marketing of offers from their subsidiary Bleu from the end 2022, while announcing that nothing will be operational before 2024”.
The MP told ZDNet that he also addressed a question on the S3NS offer on Wednesday to Jean-Noël Barrot, newly appointed Minister Delegate for Digital Affairs, in charge of digital transition and telecommunications.
Contacted, Thales has not responded to our requests for the time being.