British spy agencies sign deal with Amazon to host ‘top secret data’ for espionage: Report

Britain’s three spy agencies have entered into a contract with Amazon’s cloud computing platform, AWS, to host classified materials aimed at facilitating data analysis and artificial intelligence for espionage activities, the Financial Times has reported.

The GCHQ is said to have struck a deal for the procurement of high-security cloud which will also be used by MI5 and MI6 and other government departments during joint operations.

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 The deal, which is estimated by industry experts to be worth £ 500 to £ 1 billion over the next decade, will reportedly boost the use of data analytics and artificial intelligence for the UK's intelligence agencies.

According to the report citing people familiar with the development, the agreement was signed this year with AWS, Amazon.com Inc's cloud service unit, and the data of all the agencies will be held in Britain.

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In February, Britain's cyber spies at the GCHQ intelligence agency said they had fully embraced artificial intelligence to uncover patterns in vast amounts of global data to counter hostile disinformation and snare child abusers.

GCHQ has been using basic forms of AI such as translation technology for years but is now stepping up its use, partly in response to the use of AI by hostile states and partly due to the data explosion that makes it effective.

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Earlier on Monday, GCHQ Director Jeremy Fleming told a conference the number of ransomware attacks had doubled across the UK in 2021, compared with last year, according to the FT

(With inputs from agencies)