Amazon to host UK spy agencies' data - report

The UK's spy agencies have signed a deal with Amazon for the tech giant to host classified material to boost the use of data analytics and artificial intelligence in espionage, according to a report.

AWS, Amazon's cloud computing arm, will host the high-security system in a deal estimated to be worth between £500m and £1bn over the next decade, the Financial Times reported. The deal, which covers GCHQ, MI5 and MI6, was signed in 2021 but was not made public.

The agencies' data will be held in the UK and Amazon will not have access to any of the information on the platform, the FT said. The service will let British spies, represented in popular culture by James Bond, share data more easily from overseas locations and spot particular voices from hours of intercepted recordings, the report said.

The contract may raise concerns about sovereignty because a single US tech company will host reams of the UK's most secret data. The agencies looked for a UK provider but none had the scale or capabilities needed.

Jeremy Fleming, the director of GCHQ, has said AI will be crucial in keeping the UK safe. Britain lags behind the CIA, which signed their first deal with AWS in 2013, in using commercial cloud services.