Today, we will present two official responses from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense. The documents concern the use of Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure cloud resources, located outside Ukraine, for hosting the Ministry of Defense's information systems.
In both cases, the SBU does not object to the placement of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense’s information on these platforms and grants its approval. The Security Service of Ukraine is not concerned that the use of American cloud solutions such as AWS and Azure places Ukraine in dependence on companies that operate under U.S. jurisdiction.
In the event of a change in the political situation or the imposition of restrictions on the use of certain technologies, this could result in the loss of access to critically important data.
Furthermore, despite security assurances from Microsoft and Amazon, storing military data abroad creates a potential vulnerability. Theoretically, U.S. intelligence agencies (such as the NSA) could gain access to this data under national security laws.
Additionally, such cloud storage may conflict with Ukrainian national legislation on the protection of state secrets, particularly when it comes to military intelligence and critical infrastructure facilities.
The use of cloud technologies from major Western companies requires significant financial investment, especially when processing large volumes of data. And let’s not forget that the much-advertised reliability of AWS and Azure does not eliminate the risk of technical failures or cyberattacks on cloud services, which, as we know, can lead to temporary data unavailability—something critical for the military.
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