On June 9, Amazon announced its plans to invest $20 billion in Pennsylvania to expand the company’s data center infrastructure and support AI and cloud-computing technologies.

In addition to giant facilities, the company says it will bring thousands of construction jobs and create 1,250 new high-skilled roles, like data center engineers and network specialists.

“For too long, we’ve watched as talents across Pennsylvania got hollowed out and left behind,” Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro said at the news conference announcing the deal. “No more. Now is our time to rebuild those communities and invest in them. This investment in Pennsylvania starts reversing that trend.”

Amazon said in its press release it will “bring training and education programs, including data center technician programs, fiber optic fusion splicing workshops, and STEM awareness and learning opportunities for K–12 schools.”

But Professor Benjamin Lee, a computer and information science professor at the University of Pennsylvania, has concerns about the predicted effect on employment.

“In general, I’m not optimistic about data center construction leading to a huge number of new jobs or a large amount of economic activity beyond the construction of it, partly because most data centers are operated autonomously, or with fairly mature software infrastructure,” Lee told IT Brew. “After the data center is built, we may not see a huge number of highly paid jobs, for example, to support that data.”

Will data centers mean more durable jobs?—BH

AI has opened up worlds of possibility for the vibe coder, but with that potential comes a danger with a repulsive name: slopquatting.

When programmers obtain software packages from open-source repositories, there’s always the chance that malicious code can work its way in there. And when AI is scraping the libraries of sites like GitHub, some packages are deceptively labeled and can instead contain commands that act as malware.

Hallucinations, where AI models create false libraries and packages, are the root of the problem, AppOmni Director of AI Melissa Ruzzi told IT Brew. In a way, it’s a new spin on an old problem.

“That was a cybersecurity problem that has been happening for a long time, URLs that look real but they’re not the real thing,” Ruzzi said. “It’s a similar thing with those packages.”

Deep C trawling. Attackers are spreading a wide net, but they’re also engaged in targeted attacks. Donald Fischer, VP at Sonar, noted that there’s a role for misspelling in targeting the attacks, often referred to as typosquatting, which uses human error for malicious packages.

How to prevent getting swamped in slop.—EH

A flurry of moves in the June tech C-suite had some new appointments—and one surprising poach from Saviynt.

Let’s get into it.

Saviynt snags Steve Blacklock from Palo Alto Networks

Identity security firm Saviynt appointed Steve Blacklock as its new SVP of global partners and channel chief, plucking him from Palo Alto Networks. In a June 24 announcement, Saviynt said Blacklock “will lead all aspects of Saviynt’s global partner organization” in order to build out the company’s global footprint.

“It is a pivotal moment for the company, and I’m looking forward to helping grow the team and broaden the partner ecosystem to include multiple types of advisory, solutions, and technology partners,” Blacklock said in a statement.

Blacklock was at Palo Alto for just over two years as VP of North America global systems integrators and managed service providers, after a similar length stint at Icertis as VP of business development. Prior to joining Icertis, Blacklock spent nine years at Citrix as VP of global strategic alliances, part of a 30-plus year career in the tech space.

Who else moved around this month?—EH