Government is working on open source cloud storage service

The government is working with a number of IT companies on a decentralized Dropbox alternative, which should also be more secure than existing cloud storage services. The code will be open source, so that anyone can set up their own server with it.

The idea for the cloud storage service, LocalBox, came from the House of Representatives. The plan for the service has been around for some time, but the Snowden revelations have accelerated it, says security journalist Brenno de Winter, who is involved in the project and contributed ideas about cryptography, among other things. The Tax and Customs Administration, the Council of State and the Court of Audit, among others, are also participating in the project.

LocalBox, which should be available open source this fall, has a strong focus on security. “Documents are stored encrypted, with the keys in the hands of the user,” says De Winter. “And when you send documents, they are also encrypted end-to-end.” Only the sender and receiver have access to the data, and not the cloud service itself.

Users can set up their own LocalBox server, but hosting providers could also offer configured LocalBox accounts. Organizations can also offer a shared environment for their users. De Winter unveiled the service during the eth0 hackers conference, which the Leeuwarder Courant first reported on.

The service will initially be available as a sync app for Windows, similar to Dropbox and Google Drive, and with apps for Android and iOS that can access files. There will be no browser version for the time being, because implementing client-side cryptography would cause many problems in that case.