Offshore Service Providers

Sealand's got a lot of problems.

Their sovereignty is questionable. It started out in the 60's as a site for pirate radio. It's never been recognized by any country as a sovereign state. It's well inside Britain's territorial waters. There's been a number of court rulings against it. Wikipedia's got some good background on the "country", including a pic (yeah, that's Sealand!).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sealand

They use a lot of "co-location" with most servers located in GB and the US. In an interview in '03, the old CEO stated, "HavenCo's security is primarily due to tamper-resistant hardware and cryptography, not the site security of Sealand." You can implement that anywhere. Lots of material from that interview here:

http://interviews.slashdot.org/artic...53&mode=thread

Obviously, HavenCo in Sealand is not much of a data center in and of itself. And given Sealand's "pirate" profile, I'm not sure HavenCo's the way to go if you want a low profile.

sealand is as much of a real datahaven as Villa Straylight

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Originally posted here by brokencrow
Sealand's got a lot of problems.

Their sovereignty is questionable. It started out in the 60's as a site for pirate radio. It's never been recognized by any country as a sovereign state. It's well inside Britain's territorial waters. There's been a number of court rulings against it. Wikipedia's got some good background on the "country", including a pic (yeah, that's Sealand!).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sealand

They use a lot of "co-location" with most servers located in GB and the US. In an interview in '03, the old CEO stated, "HavenCo's security is primarily due to tamper-resistant hardware and cryptography, not the site security of Sealand." You can implement that anywhere. Lots of material from that interview here:

http://interviews.slashdot.org/artic...53&mode=thread

Obviously, HavenCo in Sealand is not much of a data center in and of itself. And given Sealand's "pirate" profile, I'm not sure HavenCo's the way to go if you want a low profile.

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Well let's see... Ryan was the CTO not the CEO and I already quoted him and used him in my posts... He provides no proof that Sealand isn't where HavenCo provides their hosting... You have yet to give any real proof.... However this is common with you...

Peace,
HT

Thank you all for the information. I had looked some providers up and ran into a fair number of providers in the PAC rim area but since I have not had a chance to build professional relationships with them I thought I would ask here. Privacy outways the cost concerns of my clients by a long stretch. Again thank you for your attention and comments.

As far as my 20021001 reg date and no posts... that has more to do with the interruption in my profession, needless to say I hope I will get my post count higher and aleave any concerns :)



I forgot to add that HK hosting is not an option for these clients.

I'm wondering if you couldn't do with "security-by-obscurity". Use a series of apps like PGP and VPN's (Hamachi?) and distribute the network, maybe into some dynamic domains (those can be easily registered anonymously). You might also consider rolling over domains every few months. "Security-by-obscurity" gets routinely slammed here, but it works for malware and warez networks by and large. Intent might become an issue, but only if you're doing something illegal (I recall a case last year where a court determined PGP had been illegally used to encrypt kiddie porn, adding to the defendant's charges). Privacy is a legitimate concern in my book, but I wouldn't take it too far.

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sealand is as much of a real datahaven as Villa Straylight

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He-heh, probably the only "country" in the world you could take out with a single police helicopter. Wouldn't even need the SAS men.

:p

the servers on sealand are there.....but i feel that you would better off and "secure" by buying some space in either some eastern european nation or in china...sure they have alot of snoops there but on the other hand the govt. is willing to look the other way if they get their share.

Well, as everyone else has been so polite I guess I will spoil things:

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Privacy outways the cost concerns of my clients by a long stretch

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I think that "long stretch" might be a Freudian slip ;)

Do the Bank of England use "Sealand"? does the Federal Reserve Bank of the USA?.............. even bloody Enron didn't...........

So I wonder just what these "clients" do for a living?

;) :rolleyes:

I don't think India is even a serious choice for hosting. Bandwidth prices in India are through the roof. Also, I have serious doubts that you'll be a able to find a host who has any clue about security. Don't move hosting to India. It's brilliant for call centres and the like, but not for hosting.

Cheers,
cgkanchi

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Originally posted here by nihil
Well, as everyone else has been so polite I guess I will spoil things:



I think that "long stretch" might be a Freudian slip ;)

Do the Bank of England use "Sealand"? does the Federal Reserve Bank of the USA?.............. even bloody Enron didn't...........

So I wonder just what these "clients" do for a living?

;) :rolleyes:

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I assure you its all above the board stuff. These clients provide services to many governments. They used to feel safe hosting in USA and western Europe but are now concerned. If there is any intrigue about this I am afraid the truth is rather boring but still discretion is required. I know that I am an unknown but I wouldn't be interested in working for a group with nefarious intent.

Hey, I wasn't questioning you personally:

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I assure you its all above the board stuff. These clients provide services to many governments. They used to feel safe hosting in USA and western Europe but are now concerned. If there is any intrigue about this I am afraid the truth is rather boring but still discretion is required. I know that I am an unknown but I wouldn't be interested in working for a group with nefarious intent.

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If they are concerned about the USA and Western Europe, then I hope they do not deal with my government. If they fondly believe that hosting and posting in some banana republic is an answer they must be very stupid.

Please accept reality.............bribery and corruption is a fact of life.............it runs with money......if you have less potential for the authorities to intercept your communications, you have a many times greater potential for people to accept bribes and do it for them.

The basic rule is that if you cannot trust the legal system in a particular environment, then move to one where you do trust the legal system. Don't go to somewhere where there isn't one!

As previously suggested, the solution is probably VPN and encryption?

:)