El ejercito alemán (Bundesweh) usará matrix para asegurar su soberanía en la mensajería instantánea cifrada

Element is deligh­ted to see BWI and Bundes­wehr launch a Matrix-based commu­ni­ca­ti­ons plat­form, BwMes­sen­ger, in the iOS and Android app stores. BwMes­sen­ger is the latest Matrix-based messen­ger to be made avai­la­ble, joining many others inclu­ding the French govern­ment’s Tchap plat­form and – of course – Element, the flags­hip Matrix app.

BwMes­sen­ger is the new stan­dar­di­zed, secure and device-inde­pen­dent messa­ging service for the Bundes­wehr. It will support more than 50,000 users across Germany’s Armed Forces.

BwMes­sen­ger, which repla­ces the «BwChat» app for private smartp­ho­nes and tablets, is based on the same SDKs as the open source Element app.

Taking full advan­tage of the open source and decen­tra­li­sed Matrix network, BwMes­sen­ger has been opti­mi­sed to meet the requi­re­ments of the German Armed Forces, with regards to the confi­den­ti­a­lity and inte­grity of trans­mit­ted data and infor­ma­tion secu­rity.

Based on the Matrix open proto­col, BwMes­sen­ger offers multi­ple bene­fits:

• Digi­tal sove­reignty: The entire solu­tion is hosted on the Bundes­wehr’s own servers, so the orga­ni­za­tion has complete control over its data.
• Secu­rity: Commu­ni­ca­tion is protec­ted by end-to-end encryp­tion for all data traf­fic, along­side cross-signed device veri­fi­ca­tion to guard against impos­ters.
• An open envi­ron­ment: Opera­ting on top of an open proto­col, BwMes­sen­ger can be easily fede­ra­ted in the future to aid coope­ra­tion between multi­ple orga­ni­za­ti­ons, inter­nally or exter­nally.
• Open source: By buil­ding on open source, BWI is free to adapt and expand the messen­ger at any time, and can be suppor­ted by a vibrant deve­lo­per commu­nity.

BwMes­sen­ger opera­tes on both Bundes­wehr-issued devi­ces and users’ perso­nal devi­ces. To enable colla­bo­ra­tive working and preserve indi­vi­du­als’ privacy, BwMes­sen­ger leve­ra­ges Matrix’ exis­ting ability to enable users to find each other without having to share mobile phone numbers or other contact details.

 

Govern­ments need digi­tal sove­reignty

The on-premise deploy­ment, enabled by Matrix, gives Bundes­wehr complete digi­tal sove­reignty of its data. Self-hosting is of criti­cal impor­tance to govern­ments when it comes to secure messa­ging and colla­bo­ra­tion apps. It ensu­res data stays on govern­ment servers, without hinde­ring the oppor­tu­nity to commu­ni­cate with the wider Matrix network.

Meanw­hile, Matrix could also be used to inter­con­nect enti­rely sepa­rate public sector deploy­ments. As Germany’s Fede­ral Data Protec­tion Commis­si­o­ner Ulrich Kelber said: «Possibly one could even set up a data protec­tion-friendly messen­ger service in coope­ra­tion with France, which could repre­sent a real alter­na­tive to exis­ting products on the market as a pan-Euro­pean solu­tion in the medium term.»

Citi­zens can enjoy better privacy and an open network too

The Bundes­wehr has adop­ted BwMes­sen­ger having found tradi­ti­o­nal propri­e­tary messa­ging apps, such as What­sApp, unsui­ta­ble for sove­reign use.

Govern­ment use of end-to-end encryp­ted messa­ging across the open Matrix network – such as Bundes­wehr, the states of Schles­wig-Hols­tein and Hamburg and the French govern­ment – presents a strong signal to others about the impor­tance of orga­ni­za­ti­ons owning their own messa­ging data. We see more and more govern­ments running Matrix-based pilots, and brin­ging their supply chains into the open Matrix envi­ron­ment too.

In the consu­mer world Germany’s compe­ti­tion regu­la­tor, the Fede­ral Cartel Office, recently opened a sector inquiry into messen­ger servi­ces to inves­ti­gate how What­sApp and other messa­ging servi­ces handle users’ perso­nal infor­ma­tion, and whet­her being able to send messa­ges between diffe­rent provi­ders could boost privacy. It hopes to gain insight into whet­her inter­o­pe­ra­bi­lity to allow messa­ging apps to send messa­ges to each other could encou­rage users to opt for servi­ces that do more to protect privacy.

The 25M+ people that alre­ady use Matrix are able to self-host their data and messa­ges, and choose from a wide range of diffe­rent apps that use the Matrix proto­col. As an open network – with its ability to bridge into tradi­ti­o­nal propri­e­tary apps such as Face­book Messen­ger, Micro­soft Teams, Slack, WeChat and What­sApp – Matrix offers exac­tly the sort of inter­o­pe­ra­bi­lity between messen­ger servi­ces that the Fede­ral Cartel Office envi­sa­ges provi­ding better privacy and flexi­bi­lity for consu­mers.

By imple­men­ting their own digi­tal sove­reign messa­ging servi­ces, and through market regu­la­tion, govern­ments are impro­ving privacy for all and ushe­ring in a new era of decen­tra­li­sed tech­no­logy.