[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] Three British intelligence agencies have signed cloud contracts with the American company Amazon Web Services (AWS).
On the 26th (local time), according to local media such as The Guardian, the UK's domestic intelligence agency MI5, foreign intelligence agency MI6, and the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), which specializes in signals intelligence and surveillance, have signed a contract for a highly secure cloud system with AWS.
Although the contract details including its scale have not been disclosed, foreign media estimate it to be worth between 50 million and 1 billion pounds (approximately 80.7 billion to 1.613 trillion KRW) over 10 years.
The contract involves expanding the use of data analysis and artificial intelligence (AI) in intelligence activities, and the new cloud service will make it easier for intelligence officers to share data during overseas operations.
Regarding the fact that British intelligence agencies have made a deal with an American company rather than a domestic firm, local media including The Guardian pointed out, "Considering that a vast amount of the UK's most secret data will be serviced by a single American company, this contract is likely to raise concerns about sovereignty."
However, people involved in the deal stated that all data will be stored in the UK, and Amazon will not have access to the information stored on the cloud platform.
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