German government hacked via Outlook. Kopano solves the Outlook problem.

March 8, 2018

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Category: blog

Like the complete Microsoft Office Suite, Outlook is PC-based software. In the age of clouds, this kind of software is not only obsolete – many of the technologies in Outlook and Office are decades old and algorithms for the local integration of, for example, Outlook with Excel or Windows, do not correspond to today’s open standards. It is almost impossible to safely operate a system of this complexity on thousands of individual user PCs.

Due to the fact that commands in Outlook work directly on Office or Windows, massive hacks will occur again and again.

The only way to get out of this dilemma is to break this interdependence. Complexity must be moved from the thousands of PCs to servers. There must be defined, centrally manageable interfaces that do exactly what they are supposed to do – no less and, above all, no more. This is only possible with open source software and the consistent use of open standards.

Modern software such as the Kopano DeskApp or WebApp are based on a very similar functional concept as Outlook. Users can work as usual. The procedures for opening an attachment can be defined and controlled. With the same usability, this reduces effort and increases security.

In addition, you gain independence from platforms. Windows users can work with your Windows system exactly as they were used to. You can then work on macOS or Linux without becoming a security problem. The interface and operation of the groupware remain exactly identical.