US cloud poses risk to European security, says report

More than three quarters of European countries use American cloud services (remote computing) for functions essential to their national security, warns a report published Friday, pointing out the risks posed by this digital dependence.

This analysis comes as European governments increasingly fear that digital services, linked to defense in particular, could fall victim to a mechanism cutting off access to data and remote services (called a kill switch) if tensions with the Trump administration intensify.

"Putin's Russia is waging a war against a European country in Ukraine (...) but we also have an American president who has threatened Denmark and Greenland," declared Tobias Bacherle, of the Future of Technology Institute (FOTI) think tank, during an exchange with journalists.

According to the researchers, the national security systems of 23 of the 28 countries studied (EU member states and the United Kingdom) "appear to be based on American technologies".

Their study is based on public information from the websites of different defense ministries, national media and public procurement registers in the EU and the United Kingdom, in order to identify the main cloud contracts concluded with American suppliers, including giants Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Oracle.

Among the countries studied, 16 "are at high risk in the face of a potential American + kill switch", notes the Brussels-based think tank, including Germany, Poland and Great Britain - three of the main military powers in Europe.

Only one country - Austria, a non-NATO member country - was classified as presenting a reduced risk.

Some countries are already looking to turn to national or European solutions to guarantee their digital sovereignty, which has pushed American companies to offer "sovereign" cloud services which, according to them, would escape the influence of Washington.

But "this labeling does not resolve the underlying dependency problems", pointed out the group, because these services could still be subject to American law which allows companies to be required to hand over data stored abroad.

These companies could also be forced to suspend maintenance and security updates due to US sanctions, according to the researchers.

Last year, the United States deprived Ukraine of certain services, including satellite images provided by the American company Maxar, after a tense exchange in the Oval Office between Presidents Trump and Zelensky.

This sequence was "a real alarm signal", said Katja Bego, from the reflex group, in an interview with the media.