Germany: Updated minimum standard for usage of external cloud service providers

On 7 July 2021, the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) published its updated minimum standard for the usage of external cloud service providers (2.0). It combines the two types of usage of external cloud services that were before separated into an independent standard. The minimum standard now includes both simple usage and shared usage where the authority uses a cloud service in collaboration with others but without a contractual relationship with the cloud service provider. The goal of the minimum standard is to ensure information security by cloud service providers.