Amazon Adds Crypto-Based Security Tools

Amazon’s AWS is in the process of developing new cryptographic and AI-based security tools, and is now looking for more than 130 engineers with cryptography skills to help build and run the project.

According to reports, a large portion of the work is taking place in a division called the Automated Reasoning Group (ARG), which works to identify security issues and to develop new tools to fix them for Amazon Web Services (AWS) and its customers.

In addition, Amazon has recently registered two new trademarks: Quivela and SideTrail, both of which are being associated with ARG. Quivela was classified in its patent application as “computer software for cryptographic protocol specification and verification,” while SideTrail will focus on cryptography-based security services.

In July, a customer of AWS started testing out two new cybersecurity tools, Tiros and Zelkova, math-based techniques that “variously evaluate access control schemes, security configurations and feedback based on different setups to help troubleshoot and prove the effectiveness of security systems across storage (S3) buckets.”

“Cloud is the new computer, the Earth is the motherboard and data centers are the cards,” Byron Cook, founder and director of the ARG, said in a recent lecture. “The challenge is that as [AWS] scales, it needs to be ever more secure … How does AWS continue to scale quickly and securely?

“AWS has made a big bet on our community,” he added.

Amazon has also benefited from its AWS division, which generated over $6 billion in revenues last quarter with $1.6 billion in operating income. This month, it was reported that, according to MKM Analyst Rob Sanderson, the company could see its value explode due to the profitability of AWS. In fact, the analyst said in a research note to clients that AWS may be worth $1 trillion in six years; that would be larger than Amazon’s market cap, which currently stands at $929 billion.