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Amazon insiders sound alarm over security

politico.eu

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Re: Amazon insiders sound alarm over security

#41

Post by drivebycomment »

throwawaysea wrote: post #9
nothasan wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And how does this solve the problem of information security?

Moving away from a few megacorps would mean consumers have choice in selecting an alternative provider who takes privacy and security more seriously. Today that choice doesn’t exist because Google, Amazon, Facebook, and other big tech companies don’t face competition either due to a traditional monopoly/oligopoly traits, extreme capital advantages, or network effects.

Tell me which provider takes security seriously and how you know that.

Re: Amazon insiders sound alarm over security

#42

Post by _y5hn »

ActorNightly wrote: post #10

Every time I read articles like these, I get dissapointed about the state of the internet. The only thing you know that is likely to be true is that someone got fired from Amazon, and thats it. You don't know if they are telling the truth. You don't know if they were in the right. You don't know if Amazon was fixing the problem, and they decided to be an asshole and go over their bosses because they felt that not eno…

What reasons are there to give Amazon benefit of doubt?

Re: Amazon insiders sound alarm over security

#44

Post by pm90 »

015a wrote: post #5

> "These inaccurate, unsubstantiated and dated claims don’t reflect our commitment to keeping personal information safe. Amazon has comprehensive, long-established privacy and security policies, procedures and technologies in place. Every company has Policies. Zero companies have Realities which match their policies. This means nothing. > We regularly audit our services to ensure compliance and have zero tolerance fo…

While security audits are woefully behind the times, they’re not nothing. They do make companies take security seriously, to an extent. The problem with security is that it’s often not enough, you just need one weak spot to break through.

Re: Amazon insiders sound alarm over security

#45

Post by guitarbill »

yashap wrote: post #32
ActorNightly wrote: post #10

Every time I read articles like these, I get dissapointed about the state of the internet. The only thing you know that is likely to be true is that someone got fired from Amazon, and thats it. You don't know if they are telling the truth. You don't know if they were in the right. You don't know if Amazon was fixing the problem, and they decided to be an asshole and go over their bosses because they felt that not eno…

Yeah, Amazon is a massive target for hackers, but hasn’t had any particularly bad breaches that I can remember. I’m sure their security/privacy is far from perfect, but it seems to be pretty effective. FWIW I’ve never worked for Amazon, but I have quite a few friends and former coworkers at AWS. We’ve had discussions about security and privacy, and the general sense I got from them is that Amazon has more of a focus…

From OP:

> They also noted that AWS is largely run separately from the rest of the company.

So this maybe isn't surprising. One deals with mere customers, the other with businesses that have money and lawyers. AWS is also newer than Amazon, right?

Re: Amazon insiders sound alarm over security

#46

Post by dsnr »

_y5hn wrote: post #42
ActorNightly wrote: post #10

Every time I read articles like these, I get dissapointed about the state of the internet. The only thing you know that is likely to be true is that someone got fired from Amazon, and thats it. You don't know if they are telling the truth. You don't know if they were in the right. You don't know if Amazon was fixing the problem, and they decided to be an asshole and go over their bosses because they felt that not eno…

What reasons are there to give Amazon benefit of doubt?

What reasons are there to believe that someone who‘s in the middle of a lawsuit with their former employer will tell the truth? For what I know this „leak“ might be part of their strategy to win the lawsuit.

Re: Amazon insiders sound alarm over security

#47

Post by vmception »

mike_d wrote: post #39
vmception wrote: post #12

Its good they are sounding the alarm, for example, Crypto AG had their cryptographer employees continually find security flaws only to have upper management tell them to work on something else, only to find out after 50 years that it was a CIA operation selling backdoored products to nation states. With nothing being outside the realm of possibility, removing the need for trust should be priority number one.

> Crypto AG had their cryptographer employees continually find security flaws only to have upper management tell them to work on something else I would be very interested if you could share accounts of this happening. From the declassified documents I have studied the Crypto AG "backdoor" consisted of misleading customers that less complex models (with smaller keys) would be suitable for their communications, working…

This is a great discussion and not at all my point. I don't care who tried to compromise what, the consumer and along with their data is beholden to multiple masters.

Re: Amazon insiders sound alarm over security

#48

Post by altacc »

> because Amazon has a poor grasp of what data it has, where it is stored and who has access to it.

I see this more and more in companies where microservices have become prevalent but data strategy hasn't kept pace. Data gets decentralized and services end up storing data from other services, leading to duplication and shadow data that is almost impossible to maintain and control. A coherent data strategy is very important but for many companies hasn't been considered until the problem is well established and painful to overcome.

Re: Amazon insiders sound alarm over security

#49

Post by quantified »

yashap wrote: post #32
ActorNightly wrote: post #10

Every time I read articles like these, I get dissapointed about the state of the internet. The only thing you know that is likely to be true is that someone got fired from Amazon, and thats it. You don't know if they are telling the truth. You don't know if they were in the right. You don't know if Amazon was fixing the problem, and they decided to be an asshole and go over their bosses because they felt that not eno…

Yeah, Amazon is a massive target for hackers, but hasn’t had any particularly bad breaches that I can remember. I’m sure their security/privacy is far from perfect, but it seems to be pretty effective. FWIW I’ve never worked for Amazon, but I have quite a few friends and former coworkers at AWS. We’ve had discussions about security and privacy, and the general sense I got from them is that Amazon has more of a focus…

They are a juicy target. Their doorknobs are doubtless getting rattled all the time. We haven’t heard anything, but also they have to know they’re breached before they tell anyone. Let’s see what happens over the next couple of years.

Re: Amazon insiders sound alarm over security

#50

Post by rurban »

croes wrote: post #38
rurban wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good, because then you can verify your claims in court. Which Amazon will not be able to counter. So they will fear the light. Like their friends, secret services doing their illegal things, but they are protected by "National Security" claims, Amazon not.

That's why I think the claims are not completely bogus otherwise Amamzon would have sued immediately.

Of course they are not bogus.
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