# AWS acknowledges permanent customer-data loss after Iran strikes

_Published Wednesday, September 16, 2026 at 4:07 PM EDT · Infrastructure, Products · Latest · Tier 1 — Major_

![A Planet Labs satellite image shows a top-down view of an Amazon data center in Abu Dhabi, UAE, on March 2, 2026. This data center was damaged by an Iranian drone strike. — Primary](https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/AWS-data-center-in-Abu-Dhabi-1152x648.jpg)

AWS acknowledged on September 15 that it could not restore access to some customer resources and data after Iranian drone strikes damaged data centers in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.

Customer data was irretrievably lost in one UAE availability zone, while AWS said it could not restore access to resources and data across all three Bahrain availability zones. AWS is replacing affected infrastructure and still recovering regional resources in the other UAE zones. The company said the damage exceeded what its regional and multi-availability-zone services were designed to withstand.

## Sources

- [Ars Technica](https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/09/iran-strikes-on-amazon-data-centers-caused-permanent-loss-of-customer-data/)

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Canonical: https://techandbusiness.org/newswire/JHgMydIW-OTp7M-ZvxQU-1
Published: 2026-09-16T20:07:40.902Z
Story chronology: 2026-09-15T00:00:00.000Z
Retrieved: 2026-09-16T22:10:45.970Z
Publisher: Tech & Business (techandbusiness.org)