Dossier
Knowledge security
How do you screen new employees from outside the European Union? Should you work with international partners or not? And what scientific areas are being scrutinised closely? Knowledge security involves constantly trying to find the balance between academic freedom and security. As the biggest technical university in the Netherlands, TU Delft believes it has a duty to lead the way. Is that the case? And if so, what is its policy, the issues it has to weigh up and what sometimes goes wrong? Read all about it in this dossier.
Digital autonomy is not a luxury, it is essential. This was the message communicated this summer by researchers from the Rathenau Institute to Dutch knowledge institutions in a report about digital dependence on foreign technology companies. Delta asked ICT director Erik Scherff about the university’s position on this. His reply: “The current geopolitics forces us to negotiate.”
Support open science where possible, do not publish in fraudulent journals and be cautious with AI. The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) is presenting a draft version of the new integrity code. Everyone can now respond to it.
Higher education institutions are leaning too much on commercial tech companies, warns The Young Academy. This puts the core values of science at risk. In a manifesto, the society calls for a radical change of direction.
As of 2027, anyone wanting to study or work in sensitive areas may only do so after a positive outcome of screening. This is written in the new proposed bill by Eppo Bruins, the Minister of Education. TU Delft itself has screened since 2022.
Universities are telling their employees to beware of blackmail by foreign intelligence agencies. Not just at conferences in faraway foreign countries, but also here in the Netherlands.
Calls for Europe to develop open-source cloud services as an alternative to the dominance of American tech giants are becoming more frequent. But how exactly does ‘open source’ differ from big tech?
Columnist Ali Vahidi is concerned about screening based on nationality at Dutch universities. He knows many colleagues who fear the impact of this policy on their research, while rectors and academic institutions do not seem to question this injustice.
Universities have become too dependent on large American IT companies, many researchers believe. They wonder if there is still a way back. In February, five Dutch universities will launch a trial with the NextCloud open source platform. What if this proves successful?
Universities are given an additional task: to register thousands of prospective students and employees for a security check every year. Universities and MPs wonder whether that will work.
TU Delft is currently investigating who is behind the DDoS attack at the end of May. In the investigation, it is dependent on the cooperation of hosting companies and cloud services
The large majority of the House of Representatives does not want Chinese PhD candidates on scholarships from the China Scholarship Council (CSC) to have access to sensitive fields of research any longer. This was voted on on Tuesday.
Bachelor’s students will not be included in the future screening of foreign students and researchers in sensitive fields, promises outgoing education minister Robbert Dijkgraaf.
Despite criticism from academia, there will be a nation-wide screening of foreign students and researchers. TU Delft started its own screening last year. How is it going?
Changes will be made to email and calendar item storage. The mail boxes will move from TU Delft servers to the Microsoft cloud. The Works Council hopes this will be temporary.
To increase knowledge security, screening of researchers from outside Europe is in the making. Not a good idea, says KNAW President and TU Delft professor Marileen Dogterom.
Half of TU Delft research is viewed as ‘key technology’. This means that the new Knowledge Security Act will have major consequences. “This is not the right approach.”
The security services have prevented an Iranian researcher from gaining knowledge at a Dutch TU that could have been used for Iran’s nuclear weapons programme.
Which scientists can we work with and how careful should we be? Over the course of almost 12 months, the national Knowledge Security Helpdesk received 148 questions.
‘Student data safe in US cloud’ Personal and study data of many Dutch students are stored in data centres of American tech companies. According to the Dutch cabinet, measures have been taken to prevent leaks. According to a recent study, three quarters of the personal data of Dutch students are stored…
Dutch only Op dinsdag 13 december houdt de TU Delft een hybride symposium over Kennisveiligheid. “Daar willen we wetenschappers van de TU bijpraten over wat we doen op het gebied van kennisveiligheid en hoe zij daar zelf mee aan de slag kunnen”, vertelt TU-programmadirecteur kennisveiligheid Peter Weijland. Wetenschappers kunnen zowel digitaal als fysiek deelnemen. …
The data of the vast majority of Dutch students is currently being stored at Microsoft and Amazon data centres, the Dutch newspaper FD reports.
The House of Representatives wants educational institutions to be more critical when it comes to analysing knowledge security. The House of Representatives passed a motion.
Universities need to “clean up their act” when it comes to partnerships with autocratic countries, and will be subjected to an external review, Minister Dijkgraaf announced.
The threat of espionage was “as great as ever” last year, the General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) writes in its annual report.
At least nine international TU Delft students were the victim of telephone fraud. It has caused a lot of financial and psychological damage. “I don’t trust anyone anymore.”
Educational institutions make considerable use of Big Tech companies such as Google and Microsoft. Education Minister Van Engelshoven is in favour of a European alternative.
To protect students and staff, universities should not use American cloud services. That is the opinion of a group of experts, including Michel van Eeten from TU Delft.
