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I was not prepared to start my day with "FBI using an undercover to throw a charge on a guy with an ill-conceived plan to blow up AWS data centers" but here we are
I will regret doing a thread about this but gonna just put some initial observations here that might not land in quick coverage
looking at the filing the guy at least did some of his homework: he specifically was going after the Smith Switch Road data center, which was developed for AWS by Corporate Office Properties Trust (COPT), a REIT that does defense contractor office parks
COPT pivoted into doing "secure data center" real estate and development stuff around 2012 I think? Their whole expertise is building facilities that meet federal security standards (ie SCIFs) and they'd be a natural partner for AWS' expansion into defense cloud services
At this point though, COPT is one of the biggest third party developers building out data centers for AWS in northern Virginia. So are those all for government contracts? Unclear but I'm skeptical–AWS brings COPT a lot of $$, whether it's enterprise or gov cloud construction
The filing quotes Pendley talking about "24 buildings" where "70% of the internet" runs. I wonder if he pulled the 24 number from reporting on COPT's SEC filings like this @datacenter story from 2019 which has a map of...24 COPT properties https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/business/amazon-s-relentless-growth-northern-virginia-continues
(incidentally, if you care about data center things and don't read Data Center Knowledge, what are you even doing they are fucking legends)
Anyway all that being said the story linked above notes that two data centers aren't included in the map because they're "secure data center locations" which is to say, probably defense stuff so Pendley is kind of missing the mark here if this is in fact his source, IDK
the "70% of the internet" thing is interesting too–it's a much-cited statistic about Loudon County (put out *by* Loudon County for PR), and Pendley apparently conflated his find of 24 properties with the entire data center footprint of one county in Virginia
Telegeography has a pretty good blog post disputing that 70% number, btw: https://blog.telegeography.com/does-70-of-the-worlds-internet-traffic-flow-through-virginia I do wonder how much edge data centers have shifted internet traffic distribution.
In general the whole "spectacularly blowing up a data center" tactic is really short-sighted. You don't need to do a big smashy smashy to hobble big tech. Repeated smaller-scale sabotage that makes services or platforms unreliable is probably a better strategy imo?
Finally I really want to emphasize that as much as this Pendley guy sounds like a dick and not an especially great researcher, it's p gross when the FBI charges people w/crimes they only get even close to committing because the FBI sells them the goods to do it.
I need more coffee, sorry I did a thread, will probably be thinking about this all day lolsob
Oh also: I don't especially want to write a take this weekend but am down to answer questions or help out any freelancers asked to quickly turn something around on this. But lemme actually wake up first
