--- title: "Iran Drone Strikes on Amazon Data Centers Are Permanently Deleting Customer Data" description: "As the US Iran war shows no signs of letting up, strikes on data centers are putting customer data in serious peril." date: "2026-09-17" modified: "2026-09-17" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor.md" url: "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/iran-drone-strikes-data-centers-deleting-customer-data" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" --- # Iran Drone Strikes on Amazon Data Centers Are Permanently Deleting Customer Data ![A color-treated photo of a data center.]() *Shutterstock / Futurism* As the USA's war with Iran shows no signs of letting up, strikes on data centers are putting not just human lives in peril, but even customer data. According to a [September 15 Amazon Web Services update](), Iranian drone strikes left some of the tech giant's data centers in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in tatters. The company admitted that it was "unable to restore access to the resources and data hosted" on local data centers. The damage extended across several "availability zones," which are clusters of one or more data centers in the same region. "The damage to our infrastructure spanned multiple Availability Zones and exceeded what our regional ​and multi-AZ services are designed to withstand," Amazon admitted. As the company points out, the drone strikes first began in March, first highlighting how critical digital infrastructure near an active warzone has quickly become a major vulnerability, giving Iranian forces a key target and plenty of leverage. It's a particularly pertinent topic due to how much money is being poured into Gulf states to expand key infrastructure to support AI. In March, major strikes on data centers in the UAE and Bahrain caused "structural damage, disrupted power delivery to our infrastructure, and in some cases required fire suppression activities that resulted in additional water damage," Amazon wrote in an [update]() at the time. In response, Amazon Web Services called on customers to move their data to other cloud regions and take advantage of any remote backups. In April, Iranian drones struck Amazon data centers in Bahrain once more, causing a major "service disruption." Iran has clearly hit a nerve. As the AI industry continues to make enormous investments in expanding data centers across the Middle East, geopolitical instability triggered by the Trump administration's war could prove to be a major stumbling block for businesses. Just last week, UAE officials [announced that they were revising AI data center plans]() following the latest attacks, further highlighting a key vulnerability Iran is exploiting with relative ease. **More on the drone strikes:** [*Iran Is Bombing Data Centers in Retaliation*]() ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()