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Amazon Atlas: The “Highly Confidential” locations of Amazon's data centers

wikileaks.org

11–20 of 104 posts

Re: Amazon Atlas: The “Highly Confidential” locations of Amazon's data centers

#11
post #4

>"In some cases, Amazon uses pseudonyms to obscure its presence. For example, at its IAD77 data center, the document states that “Amazon is known as ‘Vandalay Industries’ on badges and all correspondence with building manager”." This made me laugh. Vandalay Industries is a reference to a very funny Seinfeld episode. Someone at AWS has a good sense of humor: http://seinfeld.wikia.com/wiki/Vandelay_Industries

Seems like using ‘Vandalay Industries’ is a terrible idea. Doesn't everyone* know that anything called ‘Vandalay Industries’ is an obvious fake?

* Maybe anyone over a certain age? Do people under... I dunno, 40? 30?... watch much Seinfeld? Seems like TV shows are largely generational things... I'm aware of MASH and Dick Van Dyke, but I wouldn't get the semi obscure jokes from those shows since they were on when I was super young.

Re: Amazon Atlas: The “Highly Confidential” locations of Amazon's data centers

#13

How come WikiLeaks is distributing this? I don't see any meaningful connection to government transparency or even corporate transparency... this has nothing to do with abuse of power, it is completely normal and rightful for a company to keep its infrastructure locations secret. Some of this could be found through public records, etc. and that fine to post, but internal operating procedures are not. Sure, it's fun to…

It says it right in the article.

> Currently, Amazon is one of the leading contenders for an up to $10 billion contract to build a private cloud for the Department of Defense.

Amazon aims to partner with the DoD, that makes them quasi governmental.

Re: Amazon Atlas: The “Highly Confidential” locations of Amazon's data centers

#14

How come WikiLeaks is distributing this? I don't see any meaningful connection to government transparency or even corporate transparency... this has nothing to do with abuse of power, it is completely normal and rightful for a company to keep its infrastructure locations secret. Some of this could be found through public records, etc. and that fine to post, but internal operating procedures are not. Sure, it's fun to…

Doesn't the CIA have a contract with Amazon to use AWS?

Re: Amazon Atlas: The “Highly Confidential” locations of Amazon's data centers

#15
post #4

>"In some cases, Amazon uses pseudonyms to obscure its presence. For example, at its IAD77 data center, the document states that “Amazon is known as ‘Vandalay Industries’ on badges and all correspondence with building manager”." This made me laugh. Vandalay Industries is a reference to a very funny Seinfeld episode. Someone at AWS has a good sense of humor: http://seinfeld.wikia.com/wiki/Vandelay_Industries

Seems like using ‘Vandalay Industries’ is a terrible idea. Doesn't everyone* know that anything called ‘Vandalay Industries’ is an obvious fake? * Maybe anyone over a certain age? Do people under... I dunno, 40? 30?... watch much Seinfeld? Seems like TV shows are largely generational things... I'm aware of MASH and Dick Van Dyke, but I wouldn't get the semi obscure jokes from those shows since they were on when I was…

I'd guess the goal is more to keep this list from coming up in public records searches than to serve as a truly effective disguise. I can't imagine the datacenter employees are expected to lie to everyone about where they work.

Re: Amazon Atlas: The “Highly Confidential” locations of Amazon's data centers

#16

How come WikiLeaks is distributing this? I don't see any meaningful connection to government transparency or even corporate transparency... this has nothing to do with abuse of power, it is completely normal and rightful for a company to keep its infrastructure locations secret. Some of this could be found through public records, etc. and that fine to post, but internal operating procedures are not. Sure, it's fun to…

> AWS competitors benefit

Wikileaks desires a world in which there is high competition between web service providers so none of them gets too powerful. This is consistent with their objectives.

Re: Amazon Atlas: The “Highly Confidential” locations of Amazon's data centers

#17

How come WikiLeaks is distributing this? I don't see any meaningful connection to government transparency or even corporate transparency... this has nothing to do with abuse of power, it is completely normal and rightful for a company to keep its infrastructure locations secret. Some of this could be found through public records, etc. and that fine to post, but internal operating procedures are not. Sure, it's fun to…

Doesn't the CIA have a contract with Amazon to use AWS?

Also Wikileaks have been taken over by Russian intelligence as tool in their cyber warfare operations

Re: Amazon Atlas: The “Highly Confidential” locations of Amazon's data centers

#18
post #13

How come WikiLeaks is distributing this? I don't see any meaningful connection to government transparency or even corporate transparency... this has nothing to do with abuse of power, it is completely normal and rightful for a company to keep its infrastructure locations secret. Some of this could be found through public records, etc. and that fine to post, but internal operating procedures are not. Sure, it's fun to…

It says it right in the article. > Currently, Amazon is one of the leading contenders for an up to $10 billion contract to build a private cloud for the Department of Defense. Amazon aims to partner with the DoD, that makes them quasi governmental.

Sure, but I'd have the same question if Wikileaks published the locations of all DoD internal server farms. What possible importance does that information have beyond its potential to compromise security?

Re: Amazon Atlas: The “Highly Confidential” locations of Amazon's data centers

#19
I’ve lost all respect for Wikileaks. How about actually leaking documents on day, I dunno, how the Chinese government is trying to brainwash Uighurs and erase their culture and religion? Instead, it’s always the US that’s been the bad guy, and now it’s not even really the government directly. There’s no cultural suppression or a larger public benefit from knowing where amazon data centers are located.

What a joke.

Re: Amazon Atlas: The “Highly Confidential” locations of Amazon's data centers

#20

How come WikiLeaks is distributing this? I don't see any meaningful connection to government transparency or even corporate transparency... this has nothing to do with abuse of power, it is completely normal and rightful for a company to keep its infrastructure locations secret. Some of this could be found through public records, etc. and that fine to post, but internal operating procedures are not. Sure, it's fun to…

Doesn't the CIA have a contract with Amazon to use AWS?

So?
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