The controversial WikiLeaks website has shifted data to cloud-based servers hosted by Amazon.
Indeed, cablegate.wikileaks.org is now linked to servers run by the online retailer in Seattle, as well as to a French company named Octopuce.
The move was apparently prompted by at least two massive DDoS attacks that temporarily downed the site over the past week, making it inaccessible to some users for brief periods of time.
As Jennifer Valentino-Devries of the Wall Street Journal notes, Amazon’s server-for-rent service is likely to provide additional stability when WikiLeaks is digitally attacked.
However, utilizing a US-based company could present new challenges for WikiLeaks, as the Obama administration has harshly criticized the site for leaking over three million classified and highly embarrassing documents.
Nevertheless, a number of experts have opined that the Seattle-based corporation is unlikely to face legal action for offering WikiLeaks refuge in the Cloud.
To be sure, Columbia University law professor Eben Moglen told the WSJ that legal concerns over the site’s geographic (hardware) location(s) were theoretical at best.
“[Because] for all practical purpose…if the law is unfavorable, that Web server process will go somewhere else,” he added.
