Timothy L. O'Brien, Columnist

America’s Most Secretive Utility Is Amazon Web Services

The company’s digital backbone is so vital that the public deserves greater insight into its operations when the network is attacked or goes haywire.

December 9, 2021 at 10:30 AM UTC

By Timothy L. O'Brien

Timothy L. O'Brien is senior executive editor of Bloomberg Opinion. A former editor and reporter for the New York Times, he is author of “TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald.”

This isn’t critical, but the network that talks to it is.
Photographer: Douglas McFadd/Getty Images

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Amazon.com Inc.’s ubiquitous cloud-computing network, the spine for a lot of digital communications and transactions across the U.S., went dark for several hours on Tuesday.

Here are some things that might have freaked you out: