An FBI Deputy Assistant Director for Counterterrorism recently announced a nearly two-year-old partnership between the bureau and Amazon in which Amazon’s cloud services are used to host and analyze counterterrorism intelligence, both classified and unclassified. The partnership emerged from what the FBI referred to as a “data crisis” that was eventually solved by the adoption of cloud technology through partnership with Amazon. The FBI used to run its own data center until data needs grew beyond its capacity. Now, the bureau runs storage and investigations through different channels based on its security classification. Secret or top secret information uses the same system originally developed for the CIA and other intelligence related agencies. New facial recognition software is also being piloted through an Amazon service that should drastically reduce the man-hours necessary for footage review.
Source: FBI’s Counterterrorism Investigations Now Run on Amazon – Nextgov
