Image via Natee Meepian / Shutterstock.com
Data protection and privacy have always been relevant, but perhaps even more so as of late with the recent
Facebook scandal still fresh in the forefront of people’s minds. It might thus induce more than a little wince to know that British spy agencies have just given the
Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud platform a contract to host classified information.
This deal reportedly covers using data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) for “espionage,” according to the
Financial Times. The main agency involved was Britain’s GCHQ, and the agreement will also enlist its sister services, MI5 and MI6.
Some government organizations, like the UK Ministry of Defense, will also be involved during “joint operations.”
Sources close to the agreement reportedly confirmed that the data of all the agencies involved will remain held in Britain.
Reuters reports that the GCHQ has had plans to increase its usage of AI, which it has been using for basic things like translation over the last few years. This comes in response to the way AI is being used by “hostile states,” according to the news outlet, and partially also because of the “data explosion” that makes it most effective.
[via
Reuters, image via
Natee Meepian / Shutterstock.com]