back to article Microsoft Azure ████ secret ██ █████ ██ US govt's ███ ███ centers

Microsoft's Azure cloud has been approved to host classified-level applications for the US government. Redmond said on Wednesday the Azure Government wing of its cloud compute service has been cleared to host secret-level data and code for Uncle Sam's agencies and contractors. The service, creatively dubbed Azure Government …

  1. Kev99 Silver badge

    Well, the NORKs and Chin won't need spies any more. They'll just log into the blue collection of holes held together by string.

    1. hplasm
      Happy

      "...the blue collection of holes held together by string."

      AKA Blue string pudding!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "...the blue collection of holes held together by string."

        Your next helping is 18:00 today on Cbeebies. Don't miss it.

        And the fourth series should be in production at this moment.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: "...the blue collection of holes held together by string."

          1 thumb down

          Which bastard did that?

          Downvoting a pro-Clangers post is a hate crime, you know.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Microsoft's Hyper-v on which this is built has had far fewer security holes than say KVM, VSphere or Central though. If you think Microsoft are bad, the alternative is worse!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        "Central"

        That should read Xen.

  2. Florida1920
    Pirate

    Glad that's settled

    The clouds are specially earmarked for use only by the government and its authorized contractors in order to kill off any chance the general public can snoop on classified instances.
    No, they'll leave that to the North Koreans.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Trump

    Another great decision, boss!

    1. DagD

      Re: Trump

      Nothing happens in the Military for at least a year after some brainless child dreamt it up.

      Point the finger at Obama.

  4. JasonLaw

    ITAR

    One of the interesting features of ITAR compliance is that only US citizens are allowed to connect to the GovCloud. The penalty for non-US users is up to $1,000,000 fine and 10 years in jail - PER OFFENCE!

    1. Mark 85

      Re: ITAR

      That's nice.... so do you think they'll actually be able to arrest a miscreant from say.... North Korea?

    2. Alistair
      Windows

      Re: ITAR

      @JasonLaw:

      If that's so, that'll make outsourcing that heap a bit expensive.

  5. Herby

    Strange partners...

    Microsoft and the Government.

    They probably deserve each other, but I can always turn off Microsoft, but not the government, so I wonder what is going on.

    Of course mentioning security and Microsoft in the same sentence is always problematical.

    1. Florida1920

      Re: Strange partners...

      They probably deserve each other, but I can always turn off Microsoft, but not the government, so I wonder what is going on.
      Now, it seems, if you turn off Microsoft, you're also turning off the government. Two for the price of one! Is America getting great again or what?

    2. Mark 85
      Big Brother

      Re: Strange partners...

      Indeed it is problematical but maybe MS will get the contract for the TeleScreens to installed everywhere. It's not for nothing that MS is known as "Slurp".

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Strange partners...

        "It's not for nothing that MS is known as "Slurp"."

        They aren't. That's Google!

  6. jonfr

    If it's on the internet

    If it's on the internet or connects over the internet it's not isolated in any way. They can secure it up to a point, but failures are going to happen and that is going to leak data in one way or another.

    If you want to keep data isolated, you keep them off the internet.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: If it's on the internet

      You'll never work in PR with plain talking like that.

  7. wayne 8

    Singularity

    Government and Tech merged into oneness. Amazon, Microsoft, and sure to come, Alphabet, as the backbone of the Federal behemoth.

    As a septic it pains me to say this, the USA sucks.

    1. deadlockvictim

      Septic

      Esteemed Poster» As a septic...

      Sceptic [1] maybe?

      [1] or skeptic if you are of the Leftpondian persuasion.

      1. Tim99 Silver badge

        Re: Septic

        Esteemed Poster» As a septic...

        Sceptic [1] maybe?

        [1] or skeptic if you are of the Leftpondian persuasion.

        Septic Tank - Yank. In Oz a Seppo.

  8. Anonymous South African Coward Bronze badge

    How long till we hear of the first data breach/slurp/theft then?

    1. Kevin Johnston

      Ah but there will no announcements of any breaches as the secrecy rules do not permit discussions of data transactions.

      Ergo...no breach.....simples

    2. Captain DaFt

      How long till we hear of the first data breach/slurp/theft then?

      When it's posted on Wikileaks, of course.

  9. nevstah

    █████████ ███ in ██████ ███ a ██████.

    1. Andy Landy

      i heard that █████ ██████ has ██ ██████ ███.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    As a government using the cloud for secret data I would demand 24/7 real time monitoring by a team and access to be agreed in advance for all users using multi-factor authorisation.

    Actually no, I just wouldn't put it in the cloud, it's really not worth the risk.

    It would also be interesting to see if there are any reciprocal benefits coming from Microsoft to the government for using their cloud. Money has a funny way of opening doors.

    1. Whitter
      Boffin

      "Secret" isn't a very high classification level

      It sounds very important of course, but isn't.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "Secret" isn't a very high classification level

        Yes but it's close to Secrete and you don't want to let that out.

      2. Steve the Cynic

        Re: "Secret" isn't a very high classification level

        "It sounds very important of course, but isn't."

        Correct. My late wife, when she was in the USAF (and later the Mass. ANG) had a Top Secret (with SCI, no less) and she had a sort of spitting contempt for people who thought that a "Secret" clearance was a big deal. (For complicated reasons, at one time she had one of those as well.)

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Riddle me this...

      How does the cloud connect to SIPRNET?

  11. DagD

    Time to retire.

    To Greenland.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I prefer Norway, they have nice fjords.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "To Greenland"

      Well thanks to anthropomorphic global warming it is at least now green in places!

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