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  • Bank of England handed powers to regulate key tech firms including Amazon and Google

    Direct oversight of ‘critical third parties’ such as Oracle and Microsoft given to ensure resilient cyber-defences and help safeguard UK economy The Bank of England has been handed powers to regulate important tech firms including Amazon and Google from next week, amid fears that system failures could threaten financial stability and harm consumers. From Monday,…

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  • US tech firms successfully lobbied EU to keep datacentre emissions secret

    Legally questionable confidentiality clause adopted almost word for word from demands of Microsoft and trade groups Microsoft and other US tech companies successfully lobbied the EU to hide the environmental toll of their datacentres, an investigation has found, with demands to block a database of green metrics from public view written almost word for word…

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  • OpenAI signs $38bn cloud computing deal with Amazon

    Agreement to use AWS datacentres, and Nvidia chips inside them, part of $1.4tn spending spree on AI infrastructure OpenAI has signed a $38bn (£29bn) deal to use Amazon infrastructure to operate its artificial intelligence products, as part of a more than $1tn spending spree on computing power. The agreement with Amazon Web Services means OpenAI…

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  • Amazon reports strongest cloud growth since 2022 after major outage

    Amazon Web Services (AWS) sees 20% increase in revenue year over year, topping Wall Street estimates Amazon has made its first financial disclosures since the disastrous outage suffered by its cloud computing division that brought everything from smart beds to banks offline. In spite of the global outage, Amazon Web Services has continued to grow,…

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  • Amazon reveals cause of AWS outage that took everything from banks to smart beds offline

    AWS explains in a lengthy post how a bug in automation software brought down thousands of sites and applications Amazon has revealed the cause of this week’s hours-long AWS outage, which took everything from Signal to smart beds offline, was a bug in automation software that had widespread consequences. In a lengthy outline of the…

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  • ‘Significant exposure’: Amazon Web Services outage exposed UK state’s £1.7bn reliance on tech giant

    Cloud computing disruption highlights risk of deepening ties despite warnings from UK’s own regulators, including the Treasury Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy beamed as he met Keir Starmer in Downing Street’s garden to announce £40bn of UK investments in June. Starmer was equally effusive, gushing: “This deal shows that our plan for change is working…

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  • UK government resumes row with Apple by demanding access to British users’ data

    New access order by Home Office would seek access to the tech company’s encrypted cloud backups The UK government has renewed its confrontation with Apple over access to customer data by demanding a backdoor into the tech company’s cloud storage service – targeting British users only. The Home Office had previously sought access to data…

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  • Microsoft investigates Israeli military’s use of Azure cloud storage

    Concerns that tech company’s Israel-based staff may have concealed key details of work follow Guardian investigation Microsoft is investigating how Israel’s military surveillance agency, Unit 8200, is using its Azure cloud storage platform, amid concerns the company’s staff in Israel may have concealed key details about its work on sensitive military projects. Senior executives are…

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  • ‘A million calls an hour’: Israel relying on Microsoft cloud for expansive surveillance of Palestinians

    Revealed: The Israeli military undertook an ambitious project to store a giant trove of Palestinians’ phone calls on Microsoft’s servers in Europe One afternoon in late 2021, Microsoft’s chief executive, Satya Nadella, met with the commander of Israel’s military surveillance agency, Unit 8200. On the spy chief’s agenda: moving vast amounts of top secret intelligence…

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