What Amazon will do with the Wickr encrypted message platform
Amazon Web Services has acquired the Wickr encrypted messaging app. Here because
Amazon's cloud computing division has acquired Wickr, a US encrypted communications platform popular with government and military agencies.
Wickr offers end-to-end encrypted messaging, voice and video calling, and file sharing.
Amazon Web Services (Aws) did not disclose the financial details of the transaction. Thousands of government agencies use Amazon's cloud computing services. The acquisition comes as AWS tries to raise more contracts from governments.
In recent days Wickr has jumped to the honors of the Italian news for the case concerning Piero Amara , the Sicilian lawyer arrested as part of the investigation concerning the management of some events relating to the former Ilva.
THE STRATEGY OF AMAZON WEB SERVICES
"Today, public sector customers use Wickr for a wide range of missions, from secure communication with employees in the office to providing encrypted communications to state-of-the-art service members," said Stephen Schmidt, Aws chief information security officer. .
"Corporate customers use Wickr to keep communications between employees and business partners private while remaining compliant with regulatory requirements."
Schmidt added that the demand for secure communications was "accelerating" with the adoption of hybrid work.
GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS WANTED
As the FT points out, AWS remains a growing part of Amazon's business, with operating income of $ 4.2 billion in the last quarter, nearly half of the total of the group founded by Bezos. Some of its major contracts come from governments around the world.
The British financial newspaper also recalls how AWS has engaged in a long legal battle with Microsoft for the maxi Jedi contract for the Pentagon cloud. It is unclear whether this acquisition is part of Amazon's effort to build more infrastructure and services to enrich its offerings.
The move also suggests that Amazon may have plans to make a bigger push into the messaging space.
WHAT IS WICKR
Founded in 2012, Wickr offers a free app to the public, along with a paid service geared towards supporting military communications. ( Here the in-depth analysis by Start on the Wickr company ).
The system makes chats secret and among its functions, there is also that of setting the duration of the messages: from 6 hours to 6 days. After this period the messages vanish into thin air.
The San Francisco-based start-up counts the Department of Defense among its clients. Vice reported in April that US Customs and Border Protection bought Wickr licenses.
According to the app's website, its telecommuting services meet the security criteria recommended by the National Security Agency for federal agencies.
THE NUMBERS OF CALIFORNIAN SOCIETY
According to Crunchbase, Wickr raised a total of $ 73 million in four funding rounds, the most recent in December 2018.
In a Twitter post, the company said, “Since our foundation ten years ago, we have grown to serve organizations in a wide range of industries, around the world. Together with AWS, we look forward to taking our solutions to the next level for our customers and partners. ”
THE APP AT THE CENTER OF THE AMARA CASE
Finally, this month the US app has also become famous in Italy.
The lawyer Pietro Amara, who ended up in prison on June 8 in the investigation of the power of attorney of Potenza for corruption in judicial acts in competition with the former head of the magistrates of Trani and Taranto, Carlo Maria Capristo, would have used the crypto system -Wickr messaging based on military encryption algorithms.
This is what emerged from the precautionary custody order to describe how Amara had loyal to those who had close relations with him. The investigating judge writes: "Being part, together with a small number of subjects, of a tour that uses Wickr to exchange confidential messages, is a circumstance that allows to characterize the lobbing and traffic of influences between Amara and Filippo Paradiso".
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/cosa-fara-amazon-con-la-piattaforma-di-messaggi-crittografati-wickr/ on Tue, 29 Jun 2021 06:02:38 +0000.