New data cloud to protect nation’s secrets

Australia’s spy agencies and military commanders will accelerate their use of artificial intelligence to analyse vast datasets under a $2bn contract with a US tech giant to create a top secret cloud computing network.

Australian Signals Directorate director-general Rachel Noble. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Australia’s spy agencies and military commanders will accelerate their use of artificial intelligence to analyse vast datasets under a $2bn contract with a US tech giant to create a top secret cloud computing network.

Three secure data centres and two control centres will be built at undisclosed locations under the deal with Amazon Web Services – the world’s biggest cloud computing provider.

They will be air-gapped from the internet, accessible only by those with appropriate security clearances, and be operational by mid-2027.

The system will give the Australian Defence Force and Australia’s 10 intelligence agencies access to AWS’s evolving suite of AI tools, which are used by an array of US partners including the Pentagon and intelligence agencies.

Defence Minister Richard Marles said the network would also support military operations with secure data processing for the ADF’s hi-tech weapons systems such as the F-35 joint strike fighter.

“Modern conflict is more reliant upon information technology, upon computing infrastructure, than ever before,” he said.

An estimated 2000 jobs will be created through the initiative, which will be headed by the Australian Signals Directorate.

ASD director-general Rachel Noble said the contract would give the intelligence community access to “the very best” AI capabilities available to process an ever-expanding volume of data.

Ms Noble said AI would allow agencies to determine what data was important, make sense of it, and produce intelligence reports.

“It’s a game changer in terms of how we understand the data that we’re holding,” she said.

Ms Noble said the purpose-built system would be highly secure, and accessible only by those cleared to access top secret data.

But not all of the data held by intelligence agencies will be uploaded to the network.

“We will make those decisions about what top secret data goes into the cloud and what remains within the closer control of top secret data centres that do exist today,” Ms Noble said.

Australia's Office of National Intelligence director-general Andrew Shearer.

Office of National Intelligence director-general Andrew Shearer, who advises the Prime Minister on intelligence matters, said the top secret cloud would enable closer co-operation with overseas counterparts. “It will help us collaborate more, integrate more closely, and make sure that we keep pace with our most important partners,” he said.

AWS is subject to US national security laws that require its data to be accessible on demand by America’s security agencies.

But Mr Shearer said the Australian cloud would not be subject to the US laws, declaring the system would be “fully sovereign”.

AWS won the contract in a competitive tender process launched in 2021.

Microsoft also bid for the contract, but pulled out of the race.

AWS Australia’s public sector managing director Iain Rouse said the company’s ongoing investment in new software tools would give users of the top secret cloud an analytical edge.

“Our thousands of engineers are creating software; we’re providing those as choices to the government,” he said. “They can use those choices of cloud service to then solve problems much faster than ever before.”