JERUSALEM:
Exponential capacity of Amazon Web Services’ public cloud system gives Israeli military ‘endless storage’ of information on nearly ‘everyone’ in Gaza, sources say
The Israeli military is using Amazon’s cloud service and artificial intelligence (AI) tools from Microsoft and Google for military purposes amid growing volumes of data on Palestinians and Gaza, according to reports by +972 Magazine and Jewish news site Local Call. .
A recording they obtained reveals that Colonel Racheli Dembinsky, commander of the Israeli military’s Computing and Information Systems Center, revealed the use of these technologies during a presentation to about 100 military and industrial personnel on July 10.
The Computer and Information Systems Center oversees all data processing for the Israeli military.
Debinski’s presentation, the first public confirmation, showed the military’s use of cloud storage and artificial intelligence services from civilian tech giants in the ongoing offensive on the Gaza Strip since October 7.
The logos of Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure appeared twice on Dembinsky’s lecture slides, which highlighted the military’s “operational cloud” which is usually stored on internal military servers.
Dembinsky described this internal cloud as a “weapons platform” that includes applications for marking bombing targets, a portal for viewing live drone footage over the skies of Gaza, and fire, command and control systems.
He noted that after the Israeli army’s ground invasion of Gaza in late October 2023, “internal military systems quickly became overloaded due to the huge number of soldiers and military personnel added to the platform as users, causing technical problems that threatened to slow down military operations of Israel,” according to +972 Magazine.
Cloud services boost Israel’s operational efficiency in Gaza
Dembinsky emphasized that cloud services from major technology companies offer unlimited storage space without having to physically store the servers in the military’s computer centers.
He highlighted the advanced AI capabilities provided by these services as the most important advantage.
Working with these companies gave the Israeli military “very significant operational efficiencies” in the besieged Palestinian enclave, he said.
Although Dembinsky did not specify which services were purchased or how they helped the military, the Israeli military told +972 Magazine and Local Call that classified information and attack systems stored in the internal cloud were not transferred to public clouds provided by technology companies .
However, detailed investigation by +972 Magazine and Local Call revealed that the Israeli military stores some information gathered through mass surveillance of the Gaza population on servers managed by Amazon’s AWS.
The investigation also revealed that some cloud providers have provided many AI capabilities and services to the Israeli military since the beginning of Israel’s war in Gaza.
Unlimited storage in Gaza
The investigation involved sources from the Israeli Defense Ministry, the Israeli arms industry, three cloud storage companies and seven Israeli intelligence officers.
Sources said the Israeli military is using private sector funds to boost technological capability in attacks on Gaza.
Three intelligence sources described the military’s partnership with Amazon as “particularly close.” AWS provided a server farm for Israel’s Directorate of Military Intelligence to store large-scale information aiding the military in war.
For the military, the AWS public cloud storage system offers “endless storage” of information for nearly “everyone” in Gaza, according to multiple sources.
Sources stressed that the vast amount of information gathered from monitoring Palestinians in Gaza could not be stored on military servers alone, forcing the military to turn to cloud services offered by technology companies.
In addition, the vast amount of information stored through Amazon’s cloud services even helped confirm murderous airstrikes in the Gaza Strip.
Increase in cloud service purchases
In 2021, Google and Amazon signed a $1.2 billion contract called Project Nimbus with the Israeli government to encourage ministries to move their information systems to the companies’ public cloud servers and acquire advanced services.
Hundreds of workers at both companies later published an open letter calling for the severance of relations with the Israeli military. Google fired 50 employees who took part in protests organized as part of these invitations after October 7.
Multiple security sources told +972 Magazine and Local Call that since October, the Israeli military has significantly increased procurement of services from Google Cloud, Amazon’s AWS, and Microsoft Azure, with most purchases from the former two companies made through of the Nimbus Convention.
Sources said Amazon’s system contains an “infinite stockpile” of information for use by the military.
Amazon’s aggressive competition with Microsoft
Military and arms industry sources said Microsoft Azure was Israel’s main cloud provider, selling services to the Defense Ministry and military units that deal with classified information.
According to one source, Azure was supposed to provide the military with the cloud in which to store the tracking information, but Amazon offered a better price.
Sources at the cloud companies said that since Amazon secured the Nimbus tender, it has been aggressively competing with Azure, aiming to become the military’s top service provider.
Recently, Amazon has worked closely with the security agencies of the US, UK and Australia.
This month, the Australian government announced a $1.3 billion investment to create a cloud for “top secret” information material on Amazon’s servers.
While Google and Microsoft declined to respond to requests for comment as part of the investigation, Amazon Web Services said “AWS is focused on making the benefits of our world-leading cloud technology available to all our customers, wherever they are ».
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