Amazon wins contract to store 'top-secret' Australian military intelligence

[JohnS]

Amazon wins contract to store 'top-secret' Australian military intelligence

By defence correspondent Andrew Greene

In short:

• Three data centres will be built in secret locations to host Australia's military secrets.
• Amazon has won the $2 billion contract to store the classified intelligence.

What's next?

• The massive project will roll out over several years, and is expected to create more than 2,000 jobs

American technology giant Amazon will establish a "top-secret" data cloud to store classified Australian military and intelligence information under a $2 billion partnership with the federal government.

Three highly secure data centres will be built in secret locations across the country to support the purpose-built Top Secret (TS) Cloud which will be run by a local subsidiary of Amazon Web Services (AWS).

The massive new project is expected to harness cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) technology and scheduled to be in operation by 2027, with the government insisting Australia will have complete sovereignty over the cloud.

Similar data clouds have already been established in the US and UK allowing the sharing of "vast amounts of information", with intelligence figures highlighting that potential adversaries were also investing heavily in similar technology.

Initially, the government will invest at least $2 billion into the project being run by the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) and AWS, but it's expected to cost billions more in operating costs over the coming years.

Details of the massive project were first revealed in a speech to an American audience last year by the director-general of national intelligence Andrew Shearer, who emphasised the benefits it presented for collaboration for partner nations.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the project will create 2,000 jobs and "bolster our defence and national intelligence community to ensure they can deliver world-leading protection for our nation".

"We face a range of complex and serious security challenges and I am incredibly proud of the work our national security agencies undertake on a daily basis to keep Australians safe," Mr Albanese said.

ASD director-general Rachel Noble said the project would provide a "state-of-the-art collaborative space for our intelligence and defence community to store and access top secret data".

"For ASD, this capability is a vital part of our REDSPICE program which is lifting our intelligence and offensive and defensive cyber capabilities."

AWS' managing director in Australia, Iain Rouse, says his company is "uniquely positioned, as a trusted, long-term partner to the Australian government to deliver on this important partnership".

"This critical national security initiative allows AWS to demonstrate our commitment to not just deliver a fixed set of requirements, but to continuously adapt, enhance and innovate together over the years to come."

Source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-04/amazon-contract-top-secret-australian-military-intelligence/104057196

[Arabian]

My prime subscription comes in handy this time.

 

 

[ha_banos]

My last manager did not trust any cloud companies. Only on premise, on network servers. Even then zero trust security models. 

Will they be using xz compression algorithms...?

[Puros Y Vino]

Evil company hosting evil AI. What could go wrong? This is like Walmart offering hospital services. AWS is pretty good for commercial web services. IMO it'd be horrible for "Top Secret". Amazon's model of using "contractors" in far too many roles, is too risky when hosting sensitive info. Feeling disgruntled? Mess with the system on your way out. Want to make some side money? Steal some info from the system. Etc, etc.  I used to be in the Managed Hosting business. We once entertained VISA as a client. They loved our facilities, offerings, etc , etc. Except for one thing. Despite having great security controls, we couldn't prove to them that these controls were adequate enough to protect them, from us. That is a legit problem for them. It'd be very tempting to be able to gain access to their system and do things like wipe your debt, send money your way etc. Though I'm sure they have their own controls to catch that kinda stuff. IMO, "The Cloud" is a load of bull. It's still a traditional datacentre, but somewhat virtualized and carved out. Ironically, it basically the same setup as a mainframe. A large monolithic system, that can be carved out and divvied out. Actually more expensive, less secure and IMO not as powerful or dynamic.  /rant over.

[Jimmy2]

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