The CIA Is About To Sign A Game-Changing $600 Million Deal With Amazon

via businessinsider.com

The CIA is on the verge of signing a cloud computing contract with Amazon, worth up to $600 million over 10 years, reports Frank Konkel at Federal Computer Week.

If the details about this deal are true, it could be a game-changer for the enterprise cloud market.

That's because Amazon Web Services will help the CIA build a "private cloud" filled with technologies like big data, reports Konkel, citing unnamed sources.

The CIA is pretty closed-lipped about its business, as spies are apt to be. This is no exception. It won't confirm the deal or comment on it, so details are sketchy. But the contract is expected to be for a "private" cloud, which is not what AWS is known for.

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10 Ways the CIA Tried to Kill Castro

via mentalfloss.com

On this date in 1959, Fidel Castro became the Prime Minister of Cuba. Since then, according to the man who was charged with protecting him for most of his regime, he’s survived over 600 assassination attempts. Fabian Escalante, the former head of the Cuban Secret Service, claims that the assassination endeavors break down like this: the Eisenhower administration tried to kill Castro 38 times; Kennedy, 42; Johnson, 72; Nixon, 184; Carter, 64; Reagan, 197; Bush Sr., 16; Clinton, 21. (The accuracy of Escalante’s statistics, especially attempts since the Nixon administration, is in dispute.) There are only so many different ways you can ambush someone with a sharp shooter, so some of the ways the CIA plotted to kill Castro were pretty wild. Here are just a few of the unorthodox methods considered to oust the Beard.

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19 Famous Photographs Before The CIA Edited Them

via cracked.com

If the conspiracy theorists are to be believed, most of our technology comes from reverse engineering alien spacecraft. Assuming that applies to photo manipulation software, we have to assume that most famous photographs have been expertly manipulated to omit details that the public isn't ready for. We asked you to show us what some of our favorite images looked liked before "they" got to them. The winner is below, but first the runners up ...

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CIA actively monitors 5 million tweets every day

via digitaltrends.com

The Central Intelligence Agency keeps constant tabs on Twitter and Facebook, and briefs President Obama on top trending topics and events nearly every day, the AP reports.

As if we needed any further confirmation that Big Brother is, in fact, watching, the Associated Press reports today that the Central Intelligence Agency has an entire department devoted to monitoring Twitter and Facebook posts. In addition, the CIA briefs President Obama daily on top tweets and popular Facebook posts and trends.

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Building used by CIA attacked in Afghan capital

via msnbc.msn.com

KABUL, Afghanistan — A building used by the CIA in Kabul came under attack Sunday, U.S. and Afghan officials said, the latest in a series of attacks in the Afghan capital.
Afghan authorities said gunfire was heard in the evening near the Ariana Hotel, a building that former U.S. intelligence officials said was the CIA station in Kabul. The CIA occupied the heavily secured building just blocks from the Afghan presidential palace in late 2001 after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban.

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