Cracks open in Dutch digital dykes

“Public confidence in the 'digital authorities’ takes a blow”, leads NRC Handelsblad. A few days ago Holland’s Interior Minister, Piet Hein Donner, confessed that “the security of a large number of websites of the Dutch authorities cannot be assured.” The Dutch Certificate Authority, DigiNotar, responsible for security certificates for the Netherland’s taxation site, among others, was hacked last July by a group of Iranian hackers who went on to issue falsified digital certificates. “The authority lost 531 certificates, which Tehran has used to create many fraudulent sites,” writes the Rotterdam daily, likening the attack to “a burglary at the Central Bank of the Netherlands”. Perhaps, the paper muses, we should “once again fall back on regular mail and registered letters,” since “Internet users who trusted in the secure transfer of data with the state have lost their illusions.” In its editorial, NRC concludes: “The Internet is a public good and should be managed properly. However, this is obviously not happening.”