According to media sources, which cited people involved with the discussions, an agreement was inked this year with AWS, Amazon.com Inc’s cloud service unit, and all of the agencies’ data will be stored in Britain.
According to the Financial Times, Britain’s spy agencies have handed Amazon Web Services (AWS) a contract to host classified material in a pact aimed at increasing the use of data analytics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) for espionage.
The procurement of a high-security cloud system was championed by Britain’s Government Communications HeadQuarters (GCHQ) intelligence agency, and it will be utilised by sister services MI5 and MI6, as well as other government departments such as the Ministry of Defence, during joint operations, according to the report.
According to the newspaper, which cited people involved with the discussions, an agreement was inked this year with AWS, Amazon.com Inc’s cloud service unit, and all of the agencies’ data will be stored in Britain.
For years, GCHQ has used basic forms of AI, such as translation technology, but it is now ramping up its use, partially in reaction to hostile states’ use of AI and partly due to the data explosion that makes it effective.
Earlier on Monday, GCHQ Director Jeremy Fleming told a conference that the number of ransomware attacks in the UK had doubled from the previous year in 2021.