Iran’s calculated strike on Pax Silica will ripple out

This article was originally published in Rest of World, which covers technology’s impact outside the West.

Wars have always targeted the infrastructure of their age. Medieval armies burned granaries. Modern ones target communications and energy installations.

The Iranian regime has been true to historical form. Under attack by the US and Israel, it has been striking back at the oil and gas infrastructure of its Gulf neighbours, and has closed the Strait of Hormuz – the choke point through which a fifth of the world’s oil supply normally flows. The energy markets understand this kind of damage; they have priced it in for decades.

But Iran has clearly read the new playbook.

When its drones struck three Amazon Web Services data centers in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain on March 1 – the first confirmed military attack on a hyperscale cloud provider in history – Tehran was not lashing out blindly. It was making a calculated statement about the 21st century’s most valuable infrastructure.

The message was simple, and it landed: The cloud has an address, and that address can burn.

The oil markets have been watching Hormuz. Far fewer eyes have been on the server halls. But these deserve more attention, because the implications of their destruction extend far beyond Amazon’s repair...

Read more