CIA CIO calls AWS's cloud a "godsend"
![CIA CIO calls AWS's cloud a "godsend"](https://d1v1e13ebw3o15.cloudfront.net/data/21764/pool_and_spa_master/21394517746_8244eb5b1c_z.jpg "CIA CIO calls AWS's cloud a "godsend"")
The US Central Intelligence Agency's CIO Sherrill Nicely has called Amazon Web Services' (AWS) cloud infrastructure “a godsend” in terms of improving the agency’s security posture.
The CIA signed a US$600 million contract with AWS in 2013 to build a cloud infrastructure for the USA’s 17 intelligence agencies.
Speaking at an event hosted by Nextgov, Nicely said the cloud “has been a godsend for folks trying to implement systems quickly and for us to secure workloads better”, and said the agency is “very happy” with the implementation.
She said the CIA and other intelligence agencies are busily migrating their workloads off legacy infrastructure and into the cloud.
Nicely added that during initial negotiations, AWS shared internal information regarding what the company does to keep customers’ cloud data secure, and the CIA gave feedback on changes they would like to see implemented. AWS “took a lot of that to heart” and implemented improvements as a result.
Finally, she noted that AWS’s elastic computing infrastructure allows the agency to more quickly conduct cybersecurity audits on IT systems. With legacy hardware the systems would sometimes grind to a halt under the weight of the large volumes of audit data required.
The machine identity gap putting public sector data at risk
While there is an increased focus on AI and secure data access, many agencies still lack a...
Access management remains a major problem at many Australian councils
As AI starts to be used more widely in the local government sector, further granularity around...
Australia's next Budget must treat cyber resilience as essential infrastructure
The federal Budget needs to make cyber resilience a core investment priority across AI...
