AWS confirms permanent customer data loss from Iranian strikes on Gulf data centers
Amazon Web Services has confirmed that customer data hosted in its Bahrain and United Arab Emirates regions was permanently lost following Iranian drone strikes on its data centers months earlier. An AWS status update posted September 15 said the company could not restore data in one UAE availability zone and across all three availability zones in Bahrain, though recovery work continues elsewhere.
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This marks a rare admission by a major cloud provider that a physical attack caused irrecoverable data loss, undercutting assumptions that cloud redundancy makes such outcomes nearly impossible. It raises questions about the resilience of critical cloud infrastructure in geopolitically volatile regions and could push businesses to reassess where they store sensitive data.
- AWS lost customer data permanently in one UAE and all three Bahrain availability zones after Iranian drone strikes.
- The company said the damage exceeded what its regional and multi-zone systems were built to withstand.
- AWS is still rebuilding infrastructure and expects to restore some UAE services over the coming months.
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Published there as: “Iran strikes on Amazon data centers caused permanent loss of customer data”
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