Amazon Security Chief: Hostile States Are Using Cyber Targeting to Enable Physical Military Strikes
www.theregister.com/2025/11/1…
Warfare is increasingly becoming a combined cyber-kinetic effort, with nation-states using cyber operations to identify targets ahead of missile strikes. Private companies — including those in shipping, transportation and electronics manufacturing — are being caught in the middle, according to Amazon.
This reflects “a new operational model that’s neither traditional cyber attack nor conventional warfare,” Amazon Chief Security Officer Steve Schmidt told The Register. “The targeting data collected through cyber means flows directly into kinetic decision making.”
Schmidt added that this shift requires companies to rethink their approach to security and risk management.
“Organizations that historically didn’t consider themselves targets for nation-state actors — like a shipping company — may now be targeted simply because they have access to valuable intelligence, like surveillance cameras, industrial control systems or location data,” he said.
