AWS Weekly Roundup: New AWS Heroes, Amazon Q Developer, EC2 GPU price reduction, and more (June 9, 2025)

The AWS Heroes program recognizes a vibrant, worldwide group of AWS experts whose enthusiasm for knowledge-sharing has a real impact within the community. Heroes go above and beyond to share knowledge in a variety of ways in developer community. We introduce our newest AWS Heroes in the second quarter of 2025.

To find and connect with more AWS Heroes near you, visit the categories in which they specialize Community Heroes, Container Heroes, Data Heroes, DevTools Heroes, Machine Learning Heroes, Security Heroes, and Serverless Heroes.

Last week’s launches
In addition to the inspiring celebrations, here are some AWS launches that caught my attention.

For a full list of AWS announcements, be sure to keep an eye on What’s New at AWS.

Other AWS news
Here are some additional projects, blog posts that you might find interesting:

  • Up to 45 percent price reduction for Amazon EC2 NVIDIA GPU-accelerated instances – AWS is reducing the price of NVIDIA GPU-accelerated Amazon EC2 instances (P4d, P4de, P5, and P5en) by up to 45 percent for On-Demand and Savings Plan usage. We are also making the very new P6-B200 instances available through Savings Plans to support large-scale deployments.
  • Introducing public AWS API models – AWS now provides daily updates of Smithy API models on GitHub, enabling developers to build custom SDK clients, understand AWS API behaviors, and create developer tools for better AWS service integration.
  • The AWS Asia Pacific (Taipei) Region is now open – The new Region provides customers with data residency requirements to securely store data in Taiwan while providing even lower latency. Customers across industries can benefit from the secure, scalable, and reliable cloud infrastructure to drive digital transformation and innovation.
  • Amazon EC2 has simplified the AMI cleanup workflow – Amazon EC2 now supports automatically deleting underlying Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) snapshots when deregistering Amazon Machine Images (AMIs).
  • The Lab where AWS designs custom chips – Visit Annapurna Labs in Austin, Texas—a combination of offices, workshops, and even a mini data center—where Amazon Web Services (AWS) engineers are designing the future of computing.

Upcoming AWS events
Check your calendars and sign up for these upcoming AWS events.

  • Join re:Inforce from anywhere – If you aren’t able to make it to Philadelphia (June 16–18), tune in remotely. Get free access to the re:Inforce keynote and innovation talks live as they happen.
  • AWS Summits – Join free online and in-person events that bring the cloud computing community together to connect, collaborate, and learn about AWS. Register in your nearest city: Shanghai (June 19 – 20), Milano (June 18), Mumbai (June 19) and Japan (June 25 – 26).
  • AWS re:Invent – Mark your calendars for AWS re:Invent (December 1 – 5) in Las Vegas. Registration is now open
  • AWS Community Days – Join community-led conferences that feature technical discussions, workshops, and hands-on labs led by expert AWS users and industry leaders from around the world: Mexico (June 14), Nairobi, Kenya (June 14) and Colombia (June 28)

That’s all for this week. Check back next Monday for another Weekly Roundup!

Betty

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New Atomic macOS Stealer Campaign Exploits ClickFix to Target Apple Users

Cybersecurity researchers are alerting to a new malware campaign that employs the ClickFix social engineering tactic to trick users into downloading an information stealer malware known as Atomic macOS Stealer (AMOS) on Apple macOS systems.
The campaign, according to CloudSEK, has been found to leverage typosquat domains mimicking U.S.-based telecom provider Spectrum.
“macOS users are served a

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Empower Users and Protect Against GenAI Data Loss

When generative AI tools became widely available in late 2022, it wasn’t just technologists who paid attention. Employees across all industries immediately recognized the potential of generative AI to boost productivity, streamline communication and accelerate work. Like so many waves of consumer-first IT innovation before it—file sharing, cloud storage and collaboration platforms—AI landed in

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Now open – AWS Asia Pacific (Taipei) Region

Today, Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced that AWS Asia Pacific (Taipei) Region is generally available with three Availability Zones and Region code ap-east-2. The new Region brings AWS infrastructure and services closer to customers in Taiwan.

Skyline of Taipei including the Taipei 101 building

Skyline of Taipei including the Taipei 101 building

As the first infrastructure Region in Taipei and the fifteenth Region in Asia Pacific, the new Region expands the AWS global footprint to 117 Availability Zones across 37 geographic Regions worldwide. The new AWS Region will help developers, startups, and enterprises, as well as education, entertainment, financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, and nonprofit organizations run their applications and serve end users while maintaining data residency in Taiwan.

AWS in Taiwan

AWS has maintained a presence in Taiwan for more than a decade, starting with the opening of the AWS Taipei office in 2014. Since then, AWS has introduced many infrastructure offerings in Taiwan including:

In 2014, AWS launched the first Amazon CloudFront edge location and added another in 2018, offering customers a secure and efficient content delivery network for accelerating data, video, application, and API delivery worldwide.

In 2018, AWS established two AWS Direct Connect locations in Taiwan to enhance connectivity options. With the launch of the AWS Asia Pacific (Taipei) Region, we’ve added a new Direct Connect location in Taiwan to provide customers with higher speed and bandwidth.

In 2020, AWS launched AWS Outposts in Taiwan, helping customers seamlessly extend AWS infrastructure and services to their on-premises or edge locations for a consistent hybrid experience.

In 2022, AWS launched AWS Local Zone in Taipei to support low-latency applications requiring single-digit millisecond responsiveness.

Today, with the launch of the AWS Asia Pacific (Taipei) Region, we further strengthen our commitment to support innovation in Taiwan. Organizations in regulated industries will be able to store data locally while maintaining complete control over data location and movement. From high-tech manufacturing to semiconductor companies and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), businesses will gain access to the scalable infrastructure needed for growth and innovation.

AWS customers in Taiwan

Organizations across Taiwan are already using AWS to innovate and deliver differentiated experiences to their customers, for example:

Cathay Financial Holdings (CFH) is a leader in financial technology in Taiwan. It continuously introduces the latest technology to create a full-scenario financial service ecosystem. Since 2021, CFH has built a cloud environment on AWS that strengthens its security control and meets compliance requirements.

“Cathay Financial Holdings will continue to accelerate digital transformation in the industry, also improve the stability, security, timeliness, and scalability of our financial services,” said Marcus Yao, senior executive vice president of CFH. “With the new AWS Region in Taiwan, CFH is expected to provide customers with even more diverse and convenient financial services.”

Gamania Group is revolutionizing the entertainment landscape by integrating AI with celebrity IP through their innovative Vyin AI platform. Gamania utilized the robust and scalable infrastructure of AWS to develop secure, responsive AI interactions.

Benjamin Chen, chief strategy officer and head of Innovation Lab, said: “The core goal of Vyin AI is to create a digital identity that is fully interactive, lifelike, and safe to use. This demands technologies that are stable, responsive, and secure. To that end, we rely on the robust and resilient cloud infrastructure of AWS, and look forward to the low-latency advantages offered by the AWS Region in Taiwan. AWS provides a highly stable and secure environment for Vyin AI to provide users with secure and AI hallucination free interactions. AWS Cloud services allow us to focus more on core AI technology innovation and the enhancement of the ‘hyper-personalized interactive’ user experience, thereby accelerating product iteration and optimization.”

Chunghwa Telecom is a leader in cloud network services in Taiwan with the broadest mainstream 5G bandwidth, exceptional network speed, and globally recognized mobile internet capabilities. Chunghwa Telecom utilizes generative AI platforms such as Amazon Bedrock to build innovative services and create intelligent applications for various industries.

Dr. Rong-Shy Lin, president of CHT, stated: “With the launch of the AWS Region in Taiwan, CHT’s partnership with AWS has entered a new phase. We will deepen the integration of key advantages of the AWS Region, such as low latency and local data storage, combining them with CHT’s extensive backbone network, rich cloud experience, and professional team that has obtained multiple AWS Competency certifications. This will allow CHT to provide solutions that meet strict security and compliance requirements for government, financial, critical infrastructure, and highly regulated industries. At the same time, we are utilizing AWS technologies such as Amazon Bedrock to develop innovative applications and accelerate digital transformation and AI adoption. We will continue to provide optimized cloud and network services in Taiwan while supporting customers’ global expansion.”

AWS Partners in Taiwan

The AWS Partner Network in Taiwan plays a crucial role in helping customers adopt cloud technologies and maximize value from the new AWS Asia Pacific (Taipei) Region. These specialized partners combine deep technical expertise with local market knowledge to accelerate digital transformation across industries.

eCloudvalley Digital Technology Group is an AWS Premier Tier Services Partner with a team of cloud experts with more than 600 certifications.

“eCloudvalley Group has always embraced our mission of being a cloud evangelist, driving the adoption of cloud technology across Taiwan’s industries,” said MP Tsai, chairman of eCloudvalley Group. “With over a decade of close collaboration with AWS, we are honored to help more and more customers and industries move to the cloud while being part of customers’ digital transformation journey on AWS. We believe that the launch of the AWS Asia Pacific (Taipei) Region will further support Taiwan companies’ digital transformation and innovation in Taiwan with its world-leading cloud technology, while industries with higher local data residency requirements, such as finance and healthcare, will be able to further advance their cloud transformation journey.”

Nextlink Technology Inc. is an AWS Premier Consulting Partner, certified Managed Service Provider (MSP) and has AWS Level 1 Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) and Government Consulting Competency.

“The investment of AWS in local infrastructure will help drive the digital transformation of Taiwan companies, boosting the development of various industries spanning from traditional industries to emerging digital sectors,” said Shasta Ho, the CEO of Nextlink Technology Inc. “We look forward to continuing working with AWS to help enterprises across industries deeply utilize the new AWS Asia Pacific (Taipei) Region. This local advantage will address customer needs in data localization, low latency, compliance, and high performance computing workloads. We also look forward to using AWS world-leading cloud technologies to power customers’ digital transformation journeys while contributing to the diversification of Taiwan’s economy.”

SAP has been a strategic partner of AWS for more than a decade, with thousands of enterprise customers worldwide running their SAP workloads on AWS.

“SAP is thrilled to see AWS establish new data centers in Taiwan,” said George Chen, SAP global vice president and managing director for Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. “This investment provides Taiwan enterprises with greater choice, lower service latency, and enhanced operational flexibility. As a long-term strategic partner, SAP is committed to accelerating cloud transformation for these businesses. Through RISE with SAP, we can help customers seamlessly migrate to the cloud, enjoying greater flexibility, scalability, and reduced operational costs. By combining SAP’s enterprise solutions with the robust cloud platform of AWS, we’ll jointly empower Taiwan’s enterprises to unlock innovative AI applications and run their core businesses securely and reliably locally, driving Taiwan enterprise cloud transformation together.”

Supporting sustainable innovation in Taiwan

As Taiwan progresses toward its goal of net-zero emissions by 2050, AWS Cloud solutions are empowering organizations to enhance operational efficiency while reducing environmental impact. The new AWS Asia Pacific (Taipei) Region incorporates the AWS commitment to sustainability, helping organizations meet both technical and environmental objectives.

Ace Energy is a pioneer in Taiwan’s energy management sector. Since 2013, Ace Energy has been using AWS services such as Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), and AWS IoT Core to provide innovative energy solutions through their Energy Saving Performance Contract model. Ace Energy has deployed energy management solutions across 1,000 locations, helped a semiconductor manufacturer reduce steam consumption by 65 percent, achieved 22 million new Taiwan dollars in annual energy savings, and decreased carbon emissions by 8,000 tons through their waste heat recovery technology.

Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) is Taiwan’s state power utility and has revolutionized its operations through AWS since 2018. By implementing smart grid technologies with drones, robotics, and virtual reality for smart patrol, Taipower has enhanced customer experience through the “Taiwan Power” application. The company has improved operational efficiency through data-driven decision-making and earned six consecutive Platinum Awards in the Corporate Sustainability category at the Taiwan Corporate Sustainability Awards.

Building cloud skills together

Since 2014, AWS has built comprehensive programs for cloud education and skills development in Taiwan. For example, educational programs such as AWS Academy, AWS Educate, and AWS Skill Builder have helped train more than 200,000 people in Taiwan on cloud skills. These programs will expand alongside our infrastructure investments to build a foundation for Taiwan’s digital future.

Taiwan boasts a vibrant AWS community that welcomes your involvement. Take part in knowledge-sharing and networking at local AWS User Groups in Taipei, engage with the four celebrated AWS Heroes in Taiwan, or consider becoming part of the growing community of AWS enthusiasts by joining the ranks of the 17 AWS Community Builders already contributing to Taiwan’s cloud ecosystem. All these community connections provide valuable opportunities to accelerate your cloud journey through local expertise and collaborative learning.

Stay tuned
The AWS Asia Pacific (Taipei) Region is ready to support your business. You can find a detailed list of the services available in this Region on the AWS Services by Region page. For news about AWS Region openings, check out the Regional news of the AWS News Blog.

Start building on the Asia Pacific (Taipei) Region now.

Betty

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Proxy Services Feast on Ukraine’s IP Address Exodus

Image: Mark Rademaker, via Shutterstock.

Ukraine has seen nearly one-fifth of its Internet space come under Russian control or sold to Internet address brokers since February 2022, a new study finds. The analysis indicates large chunks of Ukrainian Internet address space are now in the hands of shadowy proxy and anonymity services that are nested at some of America’s largest Internet service providers (ISPs).

The findings come in a report that examines how the Russian invasion has affected Ukraine’s domestic supply of Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4) addresses. Researchers at Kentik, a company that measures the performance of Internet networks, found that while a majority of ISPs in Ukraine haven’t changed their infrastructure much since the war began in 2022, others have resorted to selling swathes of their valuable IPv4 address space just to keep the lights on.

For example, Ukraine’s incumbent ISP Ukrtelecom is now routing just 29 percent of the IPv4 address ranges that the company controlled at the start of the war, Kentik found. Although much of that former IP space remains dormant, Ukrtelecom told Kentik’s Doug Madory they were forced to sell many of their address blocks “to secure financial stability and continue delivering essential services.”

“Leasing out a portion of our IPv4 resources allowed us to mitigate some of the extraordinary challenges we have been facing since the full-scale invasion began,” Ukrtelecom told Madory.

Madory found much of the IPv4 space previously allocated to Ukrtelecom is now scattered to more than 100 providers globally, particularly at three large American ISPs — Amazon (AS16509), AT&T (AS7018), and Cogent (AS174).

Another Ukrainian Internet provider — LVS (AS43310) — in 2022 was routing approximately 6,000 IPv4 addresses across the nation. Kentik learned that by November 2022, much of that address space had been parceled out to over a dozen different locations, with the bulk of it being announced at AT&T.

IP addresses routed over time by Ukrainian provider LVS (AS43310) shows a large chunk of it being routed by AT&T (AS7018). Image: Kentik.

Ditto for the Ukrainian ISP TVCOM, which currently routes nearly 15,000 fewer IPv4 addresses than it did at the start of the war. Madory said most of those addresses have been scattered to 37 other networks outside of Eastern Europe, including Amazon, AT&T, and Microsoft.

The Ukrainian ISP Trinity (AS43554) went offline in early March 2022 during the bloody siege of Mariupol, but its address space eventually began showing up in more than 50 different networks worldwide. Madory found more than 1,000 of Trinity’s IPv4 addresses suddenly appeared on AT&T’s network.

Why are all these former Ukrainian IP addresses being routed by U.S.-based networks like AT&T? According to spur.us, a company that tracks VPN and proxy services, nearly all of the address ranges identified by Kentik now map to commercial proxy services that allow customers to anonymously route their Internet traffic through someone else’s computer.

From a website’s perspective, the traffic from a proxy network user appears to originate from the rented IP address, not from the proxy service customer. These services can be used for several business purposes, such as price comparisons, sales intelligence, web crawlers and content-scraping bots. However, proxy services also are massively abused for hiding cybercrime activity because they can make it difficult to trace malicious traffic to its original source.

IPv4 address ranges are always in high demand, which means they are also quite valuable. There are now multiple companies that will pay ISPs to lease out their unwanted or unused IPv4 address space. Madory said these IPv4 brokers will pay between $100-$500 per month to lease a block of 256 IPv4 addresses, and very often the entities most willing to pay those rental rates are proxy and VPN providers.

A cursory review of all Internet address blocks currently routed through AT&T — as seen in public records maintained by the Internet backbone provider Hurricane Electric — shows a preponderance of country flags other than the United States, including networks originating in Hungary, Lithuania, Moldova, Mauritius, Palestine, Seychelles, Slovenia, and Ukraine.

AT&T’s IPv4 address space seems to be routing a great deal of proxy traffic, including a large number of IP address ranges that were until recently routed by ISPs in Ukraine.

Asked about the apparent high incidence of proxy services routing foreign address blocks through AT&T, the telecommunications giant said it recently changed its policy about originating routes for network blocks that are not owned and managed by AT&T. That new policy, spelled out in a February 2025 update to AT&T’s terms of service, gives those customers until Sept. 1, 2025 to originate their own IP space from their own autonomous system number (ASN), a unique number assigned to each ISP (AT&T’s is AS7018).

“To ensure our customers receive the best quality of service, we changed our terms for dedicated internet in February 2025,” an AT&T spokesperson said in an emailed reply. “We no longer permit static routes with IP addresses that we have not provided. We have been in the process of identifying and notifying affected customers that they have 90 days to transition to Border Gateway Protocol routing using their own autonomous system number.”

Ironically, the co-mingling of Ukrainian IP address space with proxy providers has resulted in many of these addresses being used in cyberattacks against Ukraine and other enemies of Russia. Earlier this month, the European Union sanctioned Stark Industries Solutions Inc., an ISP that surfaced two weeks before the Russian invasion and quickly became the source of large-scale DDoS attacks and spear-phishing attempts by Russian state-sponsored hacking groups. A deep dive into Stark’s considerable address space showed some of it was sourced from Ukrainian ISPs, and most of it was connected to Russia-based proxy and anonymity services.

According to Spur, the proxy service IPRoyal is the current beneficiary of IP address blocks from several Ukrainian ISPs profiled in Kentik’s report. Customers can chose proxies by specifying the city and country they would to proxy their traffic through. Image: Trend Micro.

Spur’s Chief Technology Officer Riley Kilmer said AT&T’s policy change will likely force many proxy services to migrate to other U.S. providers that have less stringent policies.

“AT&T is the first one of the big ISPs that seems to be actually doing something about this,” Kilmer said. “We track several services that explicitly sell AT&T IP addresses, and it will be very interesting to see what happens to those services come September.”

Still, Kilmer said, there are several other large U.S. ISPs that continue to make it easy for proxy services to bring their own IP addresses and host them in ranges that give the appearance of residential customers. For example, Kentik’s report identified former Ukrainian IP ranges showing up as proxy services routed by Cogent Communications (AS174), a tier-one Internet backbone provider based in Washington, D.C.

Kilmer said Cogent has become an attractive home base for proxy services because it is relatively easy to get Cogent to route an address block.

“In fairness, they transit a lot of traffic,” Kilmer said of Cogent. “But there’s a reason a lot of this proxy stuff shows up as Cogent: Because it’s super easy to get something routed there.”

Cogent declined a request to comment on Kentik’s findings.

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