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Adfinis, a recognised and internationally active open source provider, and Element, a leading service provider for secure and decentralised real-time communication solutions, are entering into a partnership. With this partnership, Adfinis is expanding its portfolio with an exciting solution that will enable it to offer an even more comprehensive range of products in the market for digitally sovereign platforms.

As you know, Element’s commitment to the growth of Matrix, both as an open standard protocol and a genuine open source project, is unquestionable, and we’re proud to continue powering the development of Matrix 2.0 via our contributions to the various projects.

Matrix performs well in BSI audit conducted by MGM Security Partners, only for findings to be misunderstood. On Sunday 1 September, Heise published an inaccurate article that caused much confusion and – unfortunately – turned a positive story about the German government funding open source security research into a bad news story. This blog post aims to address the misunderstandings. *Many thanks to Heise for subsequently correcting the headline.

We are delighted to announce that Element, including all of its subsidiaries, has successfully obtained ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification, issued by Prescient Security LLC. This certification was achieved on our first attempt, and in a very short period of time, which is a testament to our commitment to the security of our products and operations. Security is always at the forefront of everything we do at Element.

We’re excited to bring you Element Server Suite (ESS) 24.07, this month’s release of our hosting software includes deployment health indicators, the experimental launch of our next generation authentication system (OIDC), and several other improvements to make your organisation’s Element experience smoother and more efficient. So stay ahead of the curve with ESS, where timely security fixes are our top priority.

Ridgeline International and Element have signed an agreement that makes Ridgeline Element’s primary partner in the US National Security market. Ridgeline, a pioneer in data privacy and secure infrastructure solutions, helps organizations operate securely in the era of ubiquitous data collection and technical surveillance. Element specializes in secure, decentralised communication. It is led by the team that created the open standard Matrix protocol.

News of Disney’s alleged Slack breach shows what can happen when organisations trust centralised communications platforms that don’t use end-to-end encryption; if an attacker gets inside, they have access to everything. By contrast, in an end-to-end encrypted system, data is instead only accessible by specific cryptographically identified users and their devices. Hopefully the master storyteller can help organisations learn that relying on popular but insecure platforms is a catastrophic risk.

Last week we highlighted a deeply concerning development in the EU’s proposed regulation to combat child sexual abuse (aka Chat Control). The Belgian Presidency of the Council had put forward a proposal which, if agreed on, would take us closer to a world of constant scanning and surveillance. Thankfully, at the last minute, the vote on Chat Control was removed from the agenda as seemingly the council was not able to agree on a position.

Since it was first proposed, the EU’s Regulation to prevent and combat child sexual abuse (aka Chat Control) has gained the attention of security experts, academics, civil society, and the private sector for all the wrong reasons. Early versions of the Commission's proposal included requirements for media scanning and effectively entail the mass surveillance of Europeans.

In our most recent version of ESS 24.05 we’re pleased to offer a Windows MSI (Microsoft Installer) build of Element Desktop. Many larger customers prefer MSI files for software installation. They can automate deployments across many devices, ensuring consistency and reducing manual effort. As well as MSI builds we’ve also enhanced the way our message notifications work for all users. And we’ve improved Group Sync: our advanced identity and access management tool for IT administrators.