Amazon Web Services (AWS), the latest high-profile company to withhold services from Russia and its Russian ally Belarus, is amidst the ongoing invasion in Ukraine.
AWS stated Tuesday that it has been pursuing a long-standing policy of “not doing business” with the Russian government for years. This includes avoiding Russia’s datacenter infrastructure and offices.
AWS stated that Russia’s largest customers are those companies that are located outside the country and have development teams there.
AWS has taken the extra step to block new customers from signing up for cloud services if they’re located in Russia or Belarus, as the Russia-Ukraine conflict is escalating into a major humanitarian crisis.
The company stated that they have stopped accepting new sign-ups for AWS services in Russia and Belarus. AWS has clear terms of service that prohibit customers from using AWS services to incite, promote, or actively support violence or other serious harm. We will suspend the access of any customer who engages in this type behavior.
This is AWS’ latest contribution to humanitarian aid in Ukraine, along with Amazon’s parent company Amazon. Amazon donated up to $10 million to charities that assist Ukrainians in the region earlier this week.
AWS also provides cybersecurity and IT assistance to Ukrainian companies to keep their systems secure and online. It is helping Ukrainian companies to migrate their data and systems to AWS cloud using migration services.
AWS stated that AWS has teams of Account Managers and Security Specialists as well as Solutions Architects and other technical professionals working around the clock to assist customers and partners in this critical time. “We are helping these customers to use security best practices through following our Well-Architected Framework to ensure that their workloads are protected.”
AWS stated that it has been monitoring and thwarting activity related to the Russia-Ukraine conflict for “several week”. It has detected “new malware activity and signatures from a number state actors we monitor” and has provided “remediation tools to customers as well as sharing security intelligence with agencies around world.
According to AWS’ findings, there has been an increase in malicious security attacks against charities and aid organizations since Russia invaded Ukraine in February.
The company stated that malware was used to disrupt medical supplies, food, or clothing relief in these cases. “We will continue to work hard for these customers and will continue working closely with them as we carry out our much-needed work to assist those impacted by this terrible conflict.”