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Cloud The Military

Amazon's Bahrain Data Center Targeted By Iran For US Military Support (cnbc.com) 168

Iranian state media said on Wednesday that it targeted Amazon's data center in Bahrain due to the company's support of the U.S. military. The drone strike that occurred on Sunday disrupted core cloud services and caused "prolonged" outages. Two data centers in the UAE were also damaged by drone strikes. CNBC reports: All of the facilities remain offline, according to the Amazon Web Services health dashboard. The attack in Bahrain was launched "to identify the role of these centers in supporting the enemy's military and intelligence activities," Iran's Fars News Agency said on Telegram.

In addition to structural damage, the data centers also experienced power disruptions and some water damage after firefighters worked to put out sparks and fire. Some popular AWS applications experienced "elevated error rates and degraded availability" due to the incident. AWS advised cloud customers to back up their data, consider migrating their workloads to other regions and direct traffic away from Bahrain and the UAE.

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Amazon's Bahrain Data Center Targeted By Iran For US Military Support

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  • by sarren1901 ( 5415506 ) on Thursday March 05, 2026 @12:07PM (#66024430)

    I could see if Iran was attacking military bases but Amazon data centers? That's a great way to upset the citizens of those various kingdoms. It's not like they love the US, but they don't care for Iran either. Seems foolhardly for Iran to push neighbors to side with the USA, especially when Russia is tied up in Ukraine.

    This kind of stuff could push a neutral party into become an adversary.

    • Past that (Score:5, Insightful)

      by abulafia ( 7826 ) on Thursday March 05, 2026 @12:17PM (#66024446)
      This is an existential war from the IRGC's perspective. They are attacking hotels in friendly countries as well, looking for short-term pressure relief. They don't have good options, so they're risking bad ones.

      The one thing that went relatively well for them was rolling up THAAD coverage. That's going to hurt in multiple ways, and it demonstrates they still have some punch.

      I bet Kegseth really wanted a drink after he found out.

      • The hotels I've heard of were reportedly hosting CIA and military personnel. The attacks done by drones, not missiles, that is, with limited collateral, seems to support the claims.
      • What is THAAD?
        • It's a kind of missile defense system developed by USA after the first gulf war. These drones they are using are pretty light weight and have a much easier time avoiding radar detection.

          As it is, Ukraine actually has a pretty good solution to take out income drones and several countries, including the USA, have approached them for help. Now that we have air superiority over Iran, it's cheaper to use less sophisticated weapons and use our cheaper munitions. Ukraine wants more Tomahawks and is hoping to make

          • They're using laser to shoot down drones [youtube.com]. The Shahed drones come in low and slow, which makes them relatively hard to see on radar. Almost all of them have been shot down, but you need a wide distributed array of AA to get the best coverage. They aren't using THAAD to shoot down Shahed drones.
        • Terminal High Altitude Air Defense - it's a weapons system that uses multiple radar arrays to get a 3D fix on a ballistic object, and intercept it at high altitude.

        • by cusco ( 717999 )

          It's an air defense missile system that costs $12 million per interceptor, and they're fired in pairs, so when Iran launches a ten year old missile that cost them a million dollars to build we can spent $24 million to have a 70% chance to take it down. Of course the THAAD system relies on special radar systems that cost $500 million to $1 billion each, and which the US can only build one or two of per year, and since Iran has destroyed all but two of those radar arrays in the region most of the THAAD syste

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        They don't have good options, so they're risking bad ones.

        They didn't exactly whittle down their options before settling on sending missiles and drones at the civilian populations in neutral neighbors. It was among the first things they started doing.

        In fact, during the 12-Day War Israel took out their missile command so thoroughly that for a long time there was no one to launch missiles in retaliation. Iran learned from that and had given the IRGC members pre-determined launch orders so they could at independently. That means shooting missiles at everyone in the

        • Re:Past that (Score:5, Insightful)

          by abulafia ( 7826 ) on Thursday March 05, 2026 @05:37PM (#66025024)
          That means shooting missiles at everyone in the vicinity was their plan even before any operations started.

          Yes. That is what having no good options looks like. When you don't trust your pagers and your fancy weapons are gone, you come up with plans like this.

          "terrorist regime"

          Make no mistake - they're murderous goons. But this isn't ideology, this is survival with their backs against the wall.

          And the US has no room to talk about morality - it is a rogue state pursuing an illegal war of choice with no end-game and incompetent freaks at the helm, and it is going to be an utter fucking disaster.

      • What I've heard is that there were basically standing orders for the missile commanders to just start picking targets and launching if the government was beheaded. Not far off from what NATO and The Warsaw Pact intended to do in response to a first strike, but all those targets were pre-programmed for locations in the other side, not just wherever.
        • by abulafia ( 7826 )
          If that is what happened, it makes sense as a "strike back" dead-man's switch, similar to the US "second-strike" doctrine.

          They couldn't trust their comms even if leadership survived - spectators in the west like us know their comms are compromised, I'm sure they have a much better (and more visceral) understanding of that.

          I'm sure this was predicted in some binder analyzing different scenarios of taking on Iran. Too bad our secdef is an apparent dry-drunk white supremacist who appears to believe his job

        • And that cuts both ways. The girl's school that the US bombed used to be part of a military base, but some years ago was separated and walked off. It should have been taken off the target list but with thousands of targets in the database nobody is really checking each one for updates.
    • by Mr. Dollar Ton ( 5495648 ) on Thursday March 05, 2026 @12:18PM (#66024450)

      If it is a datacenter of the aggressor that runs the anthropic model, which chooses as targets the girl schools in Iran, among others, it is a legitimate military target for retaliation.

      What's so hard to understand?

      • In operation human-shield, you are defending the bloodregime using human-shields that is notorious for offing 30k citizens - but that number was ON TOP of their usual DAILY offings, not a one-off exception, just a significant peak additional to their usual baseline.
        The same bloodregime funding the worst terrorist groups globally.
        One of their funded terrorist groups is especially egregiously using the same human-shield tactic every single day, and you lap it up there too and cheer for them.

        No war is clean an

        • "Human shield" is a nice excuse for an illegal war.

          the bloodregime ... that is notorious for offing 30k citizens

          Oh noes, which regime? The one your coup d'etat and your support of the previous bloodregime brought about? Cry me a river about it.

          While you're at it, tell me how the numerous other bloodregimes that you couch warfighters have supported and are supporting have killed fewer.

          versus e.g. the RuSSian approach demonstrated in Afghanistan, Chechnya and now Ukraine.

          Really? Nearly a million dead Iraqis as a consequence of your war based on the "evidence" of a test tube full of chalk powder?

          Fuck off.

          • Oh noes, which regime?

            The Iranian regime killed tens of thousands of people in a few days for peacefully protesting and has systematically terrorized, murdered and severely oppressed their own people. Externally the regime does nothing but export terrorism around the world. The IRGC is presently shooting up apartment buildings at night because the people in them are yelling in protest from their balconies.

            The one your coup d'etat and your support of the previous bloodregime brought about? Cry me a river about it.

            There was no coup, see my earlier post.

            While you're at it, tell me how the numerous other bloodregimes that you couch warfighters have supported and are supporting have killed fewer.

            The videos out of Iran and across the global diaspora of huge masses of people celeb

            • If it were me in that position I would be cheering the destruction of my oppressors too.

              Same here, and I do believe that the world is now a better place for having one less tyrant in it. Yet I also feel that my outrage at the bombing of that school is justified, and that countries should generally not attack other countries. I don't really understand how the death of a tyrant is supposed to make all the accompanying horror palatable, especially when they are so disconnected from each other.

          • Your TDS is flaring up to such an extent that you and your postmodernist leftwing buddies are literally making excuses for a murderous bloodregime that has been pushing and working on erasing YOUR entire country while publicly stating this is their goal for over 40 years, and all that time they have been oppressing their people and murdering everyone and especially women, for decades and you, the allegedly tolerant progressive feminists, STILL do not care!!! There is no saving you or making you see the ligh

            • that you ... are literally making excuses for a murderous bloodregime

              Oh the irony :)

              Again, how's that "regime change" in Venezuela going? Is the party of the "tyrant" Maduro, also accused of zillions of murdered Venezuelans, gone? Are there free elections incoming? Or do we have the corrupt government in trumpistan keeping the very system that was so bad three months ago so that they can syphon the oil off? Aw, shucks, how did that came about?

              Now, about Iran... Why is trump replaying the 1953 coup scheme in Iran? Don't you morons remember how it all ended? https://x.com/andw [x.com]

              • Your KalalaaaaHarris said Iran is the biggest threat to the US, not even 2 years ago. Are you saying she is wrong? Because she is a proud woman and of color, eh?

                Believe all the women, you racist mysoginist!

                • My "KalalaaaaHarris"? I don't even know what that is.

                  Take your medicines, dumbfuck, or go see a priest.

                  You're delirious.

                  • And you are a bigoted chauvinistic racist transphobe who wants to see Iranian women snd alphabets suffer just because of your TDS.

                    • I see that most of what I predicted two days ago is coming to pass:

                      1. your shitgibbon has announced that he's now best pals with a real Venezuelan communist. Perhaps she's found a common language with the Cuban Communist in his administration, viceroy little Marco.

                      2. There is more and more talk about "boots on the ground" in Iran, which means the bombing campaign has not produced the "regime change" desired by the war criminals bibi and trumpy.

                      3. Something is happening to the oil prices that the patriotic "

    • It's the US and Israel attacking Iran. The Iran strategy is reportedly to hit trade in nearby countries forcing them on the side of Israel in order to undermine their governments and cause chaos. This explains why they are currently not hitting back militarily at Iran.

    • This is the new doctrine we've established. Targets controlled by an adversary that are in a 3rd country are fair game to attack. This is the way we want it.

    • by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

      "Those kingdoms" are longstanding US allies who support US military bases and hate Iran the way Americans hate communists. It seems likely Iran is looking to deplete their air defences and pressure them to exit the war, depriving the US of naval and air bases in the area.

    • I could see if Iran was attacking military bases but Amazon data centers? That's a great way to upset the citizens of those various kingdoms. It's not like they love the US, but they don't care for Iran either. Seems foolhardly for Iran to push neighbors to side with the USA, especially when Russia is tied up in Ukraine.

      Yea I agree, Iran should just have stuck to attacking high rise buildings, apartments, hotels and airports.

      This kind of stuff could push a neutral party into become an adversary.

      My understanding the military is only carrying out standing orders. The ability to think in strategic terms likely no longer exists. Anyway the ship is already underway. I had assumed everyone in the region would scream at the US but once the bombs started to fall on them not so much.

    • Especially since any relevant workload that the US Government may or may not be running there can easily be spun up in any other AWS region that is outside of Iran's drone range.

      Congratulations, you proved nothing, Iran.

    • by mspohr ( 589790 )

      Iran's larger strategy is to make the entire area hostile to investment, growth and development by bombing all of the surrounding countries.
      Trump's "special three day military operation" will turn out about as well as Russia's.

  • by SoCalChris ( 573049 ) on Thursday March 05, 2026 @12:16PM (#66024444) Journal

    AWS advised cloud customers to back up their data

    That's a hell of a selling point for your cloud offerings, Amazon. Isn't that a big selling point of paying for "the cloud", not having to worry about things like backups?

    • If you're talking about AWS managed backup with cross-region replication, yes, it's a big selling point. It's very affordable and easy to use.

      That said, you still have to click the button to enable it.

      • by hjf ( 703092 )

        and pay for it

        • Dude, go look at the per-terabyte cost on Amazon S3 Glacier. It's 1/3 of a penny per gigabyte-month.

          Storing a terabyte of data costs $3.69/month.

          I'm pretty sure any company's critical data is worth it.

          Hint: no matter what you do, you're paying for it. So the question is how much of the liability and maintenance you want to eat. $44/year for a terabyte is FUCKING CHEAP.

    • Only if you are a fucking idiot who believes that disasters won't happen, because they haven't happened.

      Even AWS's own services automatically enable snapshotting for database offerings. What does that tell you about what AWS thinks about backup and disaster scenario planning?

  • by echo123 ( 1266692 ) on Thursday March 05, 2026 @12:27PM (#66024472)

    Isn't it just amazing how in just the last few days The Trump Administration (tm) seems to value Ukrainian expertise with drones and shit?

    Maybe if we didn't send real estate developers to negotiate this shit while Mafia Don plays golf.

  • Hundreds of thousands of businesses, universities, government entities, organizations, etc. have spent the past few decades turning hundreds of thousands of geographically and topologically diversified targets running a large variety of operating systems on a large variety of hardware platforms into a few hundred highly localized targets running only a few operating systems on a few hardware platforms. This greatly reduces the complexity of the problem presented to attackers.

    It also won't end with Iran:
  • Donald FAFO'd

  • So mark my words (Score:5, Insightful)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Thursday March 05, 2026 @02:11PM (#66024656)
    Trump is fishing for a second 9/11. He is hoping for a large scale terrorist attack on us soil. They aren't even hiding it they fired half the anti-terrorist staff and they have a 22-year-old grocery store clerk in charge of the department meant to protect you.

    911 completely transformed Bush Jr's presidency. Without it he most likely would not have won a second term because of how much damage the deregulation did to the economy even before the 2008 market crash.

    One of the major problems we have with the right wing is that they are all crooks. Donald Trump is openly selling pardons and his sons have taken billions in bribes from Saudi Arabia and Qatar. And then you've got guys like Steve Bannon who have gone to jail a couple of times now and been pardoned by Trump.

    The right wing is desperate to stay in power because if honest men take over they're going to start prosecuting all of the little guys floating around. Yeah nobody's going to send Trump to jail the supreme Court made sure of that but that doesn't protect any of his cronies.

    This means they will do anything to anyone to stay in power.
    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by DarkOx ( 621550 )

      I maintain the timing of this is about one thing.

      Hyper-sonic missiles

      We are doing this now because we won't be able to do it later. The age of the American Aircraft carrier, is soon to be over. A handful of weapons that cannot be swatted down will be all that is required to sink a large warship.

      You don't need to be able to produce these either, just scrape enough money together to buy one from China, or Russia who love the opportunity to sell anything to anyone. Especially something that is a lot of intell

      • Historically, every advance in offensive capability gets matched by an advance in defensive capability. Hypersonic missiles are no different. It remains to be seen how the systems currently deployed or under development/trials will handle the advances in missile technology, but rest assured nothing is insurmountable when it comes to defense spending.
        • by DarkOx ( 621550 )

          Can't argue that. However we have been trying to develop a reliable intercept to solution for high altitude ICBMs for what 4 decades and change, and we have like one partially successful test to show for it where everyone knew ahead of time exactly where the target missile would be...

          It will be a long time I expect before we effectively counter the weapons Russia and China have disclosed from 2019 onward. The reliability of these devices and the means (at least China) to produce them will improve far more

        • by djinn6 ( 1868030 )

          Offensive ability is always ahead of defense. Stick requires another stick to defend against. Arrows require shields. Guns require heavy armor. Bombs require bunkers. Every step, offense moves further ahead of defense.

          At the limit of offensive tech, you have bioweapons, which are nearly impossible to defend against, and relativistic impactors, which have no defense at all. It's physically impossible to predict the impactor's course because it's outside your light cone (i.e. it doesn't exist yet in your fram

      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Or North Korea. They have hypersonic weapons too, and I'm sure would be happy to sell them to Iran.

    • So if I come kick your ass, are you going to blame yourself for provoking me? Yeah, I didn't think so. So how do you blame Trump for the actions of anther nation? Oh right, you think Trump "makes" people do things.

      No one makes anyone do anything. You make your own choices. If another nation attacks us in a 911 situation, it's still them that did the attack.

      • Exactly what did Iran do to the US?

        Please show us on the doll where the Ayatollah touched you.

  • Fucking idiot trump. Did now one explain how asymmetric warfare works?

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