Amazon Web Services (AWS) reportedly entered into a deal to provide cloud computing services to the three intelligence agencies in the United Kingdom, according to the Financial Times.
AWS will provide cloud services to GHCQ, MI6 and MI5, the U.K.’s top spy agencies, the FT reported Monday. The deal, signed this year, reportedly seeks to securely host top-secret information and enable easier transfer of data between intelligence agents.
The agreement will also enable spies to better utilize artificial intelligence technologies in speech recognition software and database search speed, the FT reported.
AWS did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: House Republicans Call On Amazon To End Relationship With OnlyFans Over Child Pornography)
Visitors arrive at the cloud pavillion of Amazon Web Services at the 2016 CeBIT digital technology trade fair on the fair’s opening day on March 14, 2016 in Hanover, Germany. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
The deal is estimated to be worth between £500m and £1bn over the next decade, according to the FT. The details of the agreement were not and are not intended to be made public.
The agreement is expected to allow British spies “to get information from huge amounts of data in minutes, rather than in weeks and months,” Ciaran Martin, former head of cyber security at GHCQ, told the FT.
Gus Hosein, executive director of Privacy International, told the FT that the deal’s lack of transparency was worrisome.
“If this contract goes through, Amazon will be positioned as the go-to cloud provider for the world’s intelligence agencies,” Hosein said. “Amazon has to answer for itself which countries’ security services it would be prepared to work for.”
AWS has previously contracted with U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA, for cloud hosting and computing services. The company recently pushed for a second chance at a $10 billion cloud-computing contract with the Department of Defense.
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