AWS is the first cloud provider approved for NATO RESTRICTED workloads

Key takeaways

NATO, its defense industry partners, and all member nations can now use approved AWS services to handle NATO RESTRICTED workloads.
AWS's NATO-wide approval helps allied nations fast-track their own national accreditation of AWS.
AWS has 15 Regions in NATO member nations, seven of which are in mainland Europe.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced that it is the first cloud provider to have its cloud capabilities approved for use by all North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member nations when handling information at the NATO RESTRICTED (NR) level.

Benefits for global defense customers and partners

NATO, its defense industry partners, and all NATO member nations can now use approved AWS services to handle NATO RESTRICTED workloads in any AWS Region located in a NATO member nation.

Streamlined process for NATO nations: With AWS's NR approval now published Alliance-wide, NATO members and partners inherit a common, pre-assessed security baseline that will help to reduce the time, effort, and cost of meeting security and compliance obligations.
Allies can jump-start AWS accreditation: Following AWS’s NR approval, NATO allies will have an accelerated path to accredit AWS through their official national process.

“Strengthening NATO’s ability to securely leverage commercial technology is key to build a more resilient and agile Alliance. The availability of commercial products that meet NATO’s security requirements expands the technology options available for the Alliance and supports our ability to adopt modern technologies while maintaining the security and resilience on which our operations depend,” said Dylan Browne, general manager, NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA).

“This first-of-its-kind approval is the culmination of a sustained, multi-year effort. It reflects our commitment to helping defense, public sector, and NATO-affiliated customers and partners achieve their critical missions,” said David Appel, acting vice president of Worldwide Public Sector at AWS. “We believe governments, and the citizens they serve, deserve access to the same infrastructure and services driving innovation in the private sector. We will continue working to provide the interoperability allied nations need to strengthen their resilience and protect their citizens.”

NATO RESTRICTED approval process

To gain approval, AWS documented its compliance against D32. NATO D32 is the technical directive that establishes the security requirements for handling NR information in the public cloud. As part of this process, AWS capabilities were evaluated by Spain's National Cryptographic Centre (CCN), and NATO approved and published them to all NATO Allies. AWS services can now be used when building NR-capable systems in any AWS Region located in a NATO member nation. AWS currently has 15 Regions in NATO member nations, seven of which are located in mainland Europe. For NR accreditation, NATO delegates the process to a NATO member nation and/or the NATO Communications & Information Agency (NCIA) as a NATO host nation.

How to get started with AWS

National Security and defense customers can access the AWS Trusted Secure Enclave – Sensitive Edition, the foundation for this announcement and learn more about AWS solutions for defense and national security.
Customers can work with their AWS account teams to understand how this approval and TSE-SE applies to their use cases.

Today, more than 15,000 government customers use AWS. By achieving NATO RESTRICTED approval, AWS reinforces its commitment to meeting the security needs of governments and defense organizations worldwide. Leading government agencies around the globe use AWS to lower costs, become more resilient, and innovate faster. With this announcement, AWS and NATO have taken an important step forward together in helping allied nations secure their critical missions in the cloud.

About AWS

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