TechDigits

Tech news
Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

From cat videos to credit cards, Amazon says customers have to secure own data

From cat videos to credit cards, Amazon says customers have to secure own data

Amazon’s cloud computing customers have to decide themselves how best to protect sensitive information online, a senior executive said on Tuesday, following accusations by U.S. lawmakers that the web giant has not done enough to secure data on its servers.
Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud computing arm of Amazon.com (AMZN.O), has come under fire following a series of high-profile data breaches, including one this year involving the personal information of 106 million people stored on its servers by Capital One Financial Corp (COF.N).

Chief Technology Officer Werner Vogels said AWS provided multiple services to help customers identify if their data was being stored appropriately and flag any possible problems, but the decision about which settings to use lay with those clients.

“We feel we have a responsibility in making sure you take the right actions, but in the end it’s only you who can decide what is the right action there and what’s not,” he told Reuters on the sidelines of the Web Summit tech conference in Lisbon.

“I’m not going to look at your data thinking like ‘hey, these are cat videos, maybe you shouldn’t do that’.” He added that customers should use tighter security controls for sensitive data such as credit card information.

Cybersecurity researchers say data hosted on AWS servers is often accidentally exposed due to mistakes made by the company’s clients configuring their security settings.

The alleged Capital One hacker, for example, was able to access the firm’s data due to a wrongly-configured web application firewall, U.S. prosecutors have said.

Analysts at Gartner predict client mistakes will account for 99 percent of “cloud security failures” over the next six years.

Vogels said the AWS system warned customers with a “massive red button” when they configured online storage containers - known as buckets - to be accessible by anyone online, a setting deliberately chosen for some products and applications.

The company also provides tools which clients can run to analyze the type of data they are storing and spot commonly associated slip-ups, he said.

“If you (change) the configuration on your bucket to world-readable, you will get lots of alarm bells going off,” he said. “It’s up to the individual customer to decide what’s right and what’s wrong.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

TechDigits
0:00
0:00
Close
FTX's Bankman-Fried headed for jail after judge revokes bail
America's First New Nuclear Reactor in Nearly Seven Years Begins Operations
Southeast Asia moves closer to economic unity with new regional payments system
Today Hunter Biden’s best friend and business associate, Devon Archer, testified that Joe Biden met in Georgetown with Russian Moscow Mayor's Wife Yelena Baturina who later paid Hunter Biden $3.5 million in so called “consulting fees”
Google testing journalism AI. We are doing it already 2 years, and without Google biased propoganda and manipulated censorship
Musk announces Twitter name and logo change to X.com
The future of sports
TikTok Takes On Spotify And Apple, Launches Own Music Service
Hacktivist Collective Anonymous Launches 'Project Disclosure' to Unearth Information on UFOs and ETIs
Typo sends millions of US military emails to Russian ally Mali
Server Arrested For Theft After Refusing To Pay A Table's $100 Restaurant Bill When They Dined & Dashed
Democracy not: EU's Digital Commissioner Considers Shutting Down Social Media Platforms Amid Social Unrest
Sarah Silverman and Renowned Authors Lodge Copyright Infringement Case Against OpenAI and Meta
Why Do Tech Executives Support Kennedy Jr.?
The New York Times Announces Closure of its Sports Section in Favor of The Athletic
Florida Attorney General requests Meta CEO's testimony on company's platforms' alleged facilitation of illicit activities
The Poor Man With Money, Mark Zuckerberg, Unveils Twitter Replica with Heavy-Handed Censorship: A New Low in Innovation?
The Double-Edged Sword of AI: AI is linked to layoffs in industry that created it
US Sanctions on China's Chip Industry Backfire, Prompting Self-Inflicted Blowback
Meta Copy Twitter with New App, Threads
BlackRock Bitcoin ETF Application Refiled, Naming Coinbase as ‘Surveillance-Sharing’ Partner
UK Crypto and Stablecoin Regulations Become Law as Royal Assent is Granted
A Delaware city wants to let businesses vote in its elections
Alef Aeronautics Achieves Historic Milestone with Flight Certification for World's First Flying Car
Google Blocked Access to Canadian News in Response to New Legislation
French Politicians Advocate for Pan-European Regulation on Social Media Influencers
Melinda French Gates Advocates for Increased Female Representation in AI to Prevent Bias
Snapchat+ gains 4 million paying subscribers in its first year
Apple Makes History as the First Public Company Valued at $3 Trillion
Elon Musk Implements Twitter Limits to Tackle Data Scraping, but Faces Criticism for Technical Misunderstanding
EU and UK's Slow Electric Vehicle Adoption Raises Questions About the Transition to Green Mobility
Top Companies Express Concerns Over Europe's Proposed AI Law, Citing Competitiveness and Investment Risks
Meta Unveils Insights on AI Usage in Facebook and Instagram, Amid Growing Calls for Transparency
Crypto Scams Against Seniors Soar by 78% in 2022, Experts Urge Vigilance
The End of an Era: National Geographic Dismisses Last of Its Staff Writers
Shield Your Wallet: The Perils of Wireless Credit Card Theft
Harvard Scientist Who Studies Honesty Accused Of Data Fraud, Put On Leave
Putting an End to the Subscription Snare: The Battle Against Unwitting Commitments
The Legal Perils of AI: Lawyer Faces Sanctions for Relying on Fictional Cases Generated by Chatbot
ChatGPT’s "Grandma Exploit": Ingenious Hack Exposes Loophole in AI, Generates Free Software Codes
The Disney Downturn: A Near Billion-Dollar Box Office Blow for the House of Mouse
A Digital Showdown: Canada Challenges Tech Giants with The Online News Act, Meta Strikes Back
Distress in the Depths: Submersible and Passengers Missing in Titanic Wreckage Expedition
Mark Zuckerberg stealing another idea: Twitter
European Union's AI Regulations Risk Self-Sabotage, Cautions smart and brave Venture Capitalist Joe Lonsdale
Nvidia GPUs are so hard to get that rich venture capitalists are buying them for the startups they invest in
Chinese car exports surge
Reddit Blackout: Thousands of Communities Protest "Ludicrous" Pricing Changes
Nvidia Joins Tech Giants as First Chipmaker to Reach $1 Trillion Valuation
AI ‘extinction’ should be same priority as nuclear war – experts
×