Amazon Web Services has received provisional authority to provide the highest level of non-classified data storage and cloud computing services to the U.S. Defense Department, which is being used to control the Air Force's latest version of GPS.
This week, the Defense Department gave provisional authorization to Amazon to host its most sensitive, although unclassified, data. In a statement released Tuesday, Amazon Web Services announced it has received “provisional authorization” from the Defense Information Systems Agency, a combat support agency that “provides, operates, and assures command and control, information sharing capabilities, and a globally accessible enterprise information infrastructure in direct support to joint warfighters, national level leaders, and other mission and coalition partners across the full spectrum of operations.” This provisional authority grants it permission to handle “Impact Level 5 workloads,” which is the department’s most sensitive unclassified data. It further states:
>[Amazon Web Services] support a variety of DoD workloads, including workloads containing sensitive controlled unclassified information and National Security Systems information. [Amazon Web Services] are already being used for a number of cutting-edge, mission-critical DoD workloads, such as the Global Positioning System Next Generation Operational Control System, a critical navigation information system that supports global cyber protection and analysis of satellite data.
The Global Positioning System Next Generation Operational Control System, also known as GPS OCX, controls the newest version of the Defense Department’s global positioning system satellites. The provisional authority is specific to that project.
Hmmm... now amazon will be subject to federal rules and regulations as a government contractor. This will have some interesting implications.
Ethan Price
No.
Gabriel Sullivan
Lol, Amazon is part of the deep state since forever. Great "news"
Zachary Gomez
Implying C2S isn't already hosting Secret data since forever ago. This isn't big, even if true.
Cameron Walker
You would have an easier time pointing out things that aren't apart of the government.
Aiden Walker
It's the other way around. Contractors get special treatment from the US.
David Thomas
We Anarcho Capitalist now
Benjamin Sullivan
>government >anarcho capitalist this is how dumb socialists are
Eli Phillips
I'm concerned with the engineers that Amazon is capable of hiring and retaining. Outsourcing this to a private company spells for bad trouble. A few months ago, Amazon's S3 went down which crippled the Internet. A security exploit or some careless engineer can cause immense damage. On top of this, I'm concerned why the U.S. government is yoking itself to closely to Amazon when it should be investing in some standard as to avoid typing itself to a particular company or provider.
David Thompson
Don't know about S3, but it seems like a lot of the internet is very slow or down at the moment, including the Amazon.com main site.
Cooper Robinson
>non-classified data It's literally nothing
Jose Stewart
amazon gonna get hacked by russia now
WHY THE FUCK ARE THEY PUBLICLY ANNOUNCING THIS SHIT?!?!?!?!?!?!
Benjamin Kelly
Yeah, there was a thread about this on another board. I couldn't access twitter for a few minutes earlier today.
Wyatt Foster
downforeveryone says it is just me. Or maybe it's Comcast. Same for aws.amazon.com/s3/, too.
Nicholas Campbell
The military contracts out a vast majority of what they do. .mil websites may be on the government's network, but it was built and is run by contractors.
Joshua Myers
Yes, I understand that, and these contractors arguably hire worse-tier engineers than Amazon. However, AWS is still a proprietary system, it's not a standard, so it's nigh-impossible for the government to simply pick a different "contractor."
Jack Hall
>trunews.com
Josiah Myers
Amazon would be secure as fuck compared with Clinton's private server.
Josiah Evans
Amazon has been hosting government stuff (classified and non) for ages. They have a whole GovCloud division.
Zachary King
this. it's fucking nothing.
Levi Green
How much does Airforce GPS pay compared to the private sector