Printable View
I am tasked with helping several clients with private data communications. These clients do business in several countries well known for their network snooping or blocking. These clients are also growing concerned with hosting data in the USA as well. Anyone have any good experience with any offshore ISP's?
Thank you in advance,
-hlm
I am sory this should have been in Miscellaneous Security Discussions
I've checked out offshore hosting in Hong Kong and India. It's generally much pricier than hosting in the US.
I've also noted some firms, particularly gambling sites, have moved to server farms based in the States for security reasons. In particular, one outfit originally hosted in Costa Rica (I can't remember the name) moved their hosting to the States because of DoS attacks. My impression is that large server farms are generally better secured against ass't attacks. But there's others here who are more in the know than I...
Quote:
I've checked out offshore hosting in Hong Kong and India. It's generally much pricier than hosting in the US.
well........... india is known for its outsourceing from UK and America. i personally know of people who do them.
of course, according to them, india is becoming expensive then actually doing it in the parent country. but at that price they offer 24 hours assistance and work environment. plus their english is more understandable.
for call centers delhi is the place
and for software solutions banglore is the place.
I'm sorry mencken, this is a little off topic, but I just HAVE to know.
It shows that were registered with AO back in Oct. of 2002 and these were your FIRST two posts? If you don't mind me asking, what took you so long to post?!
-Deeboe
Do your homework.
What you'll find is HK hosters offer comparable space and bandwidth at 3x the price and up, while Indian hosters offer seemingly better prices, but for only a small fraction of the space and bandwidth.
Take your pick.
Hey Hey,
Check out, HavenCo... -- http://www.havenco.com/
They provide offshore hosting from the Principality of Sealand (http://www.sealandgov.com/)...
If you really need offshore and out of the way of other countries... this is the best place to do it..
Peace,
HT
Don't bother with HavenCo. Been onto Sealand for years. It's a piece of fiction, a pipedream.
Their servers are actually stateside, hosted by USLEC in North Carolina.
edit -- They seem to have quite a presence in Great Britain, too.
I dunno... there's plenty of reasons to not think it's fiction (As I have also been following it for a while)..Quote:
Originally posted here by brokencrow
Don't bother with HavenCo. Been onto Sealand for years. It's a piece of fiction, a pipedream.
Their servers are actually stateside, hosted by USLEC in North Carolina.
Their former CTO blasted them @ DefCon but never once mentioned anything about them being located elsewhere and even commented on moving to Sealand while he worked there (http://www.thewhir.com/features/euro-havenco.cfm). Now he was a disgruntled former employee... good reasont obash.. yet he never did anything to mention they may not be located in Sealand.
I don't think the fact that USLEC owns the block that the havenco.com IP is registered to is reason enough to think that... I'd need to see solid proof in order to believe it...
1. They could have purchased IPs from USLEC (may be easier than getting their own).
2. They could purchase their internet connection from USLEC (It has to come from someone).
3. They could host their own websites with USLEC... Given the cost of data to a remote location, it would make more sense to put your own websites (which have nothing illegal on them) on another hosting solution... it would be much cheaper and make more sense from a business aspect..
If you can give me proof, I'll gladly look at it... but otherwise, I'll accept it as being real.
In reponse to your edit, of course they do... their 6 miles off the shore... It would be the logical place to do all physical business....
Peace,
HT
Deeboe, it must be one of those revive your old account month's here. ;)Quote:
Originally posted here by Deeboe
I'm sorry mencken, this is a little off topic, but I just HAVE to know.
It shows that were registered with AO back in Oct. of 2002 and these were your FIRST two posts? If you don't mind me asking, what took you so long to post?!
-Deeboe
Considering all these old members are suddenly appearing all of a sudden.
so i am also wondering why the member suddenly got the urge to sign in with the account they registered in 2002 with, and suddenly make 2 posts now..
f2B
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
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...Quote:
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.
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.
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.Quote:
sealand is as much of a real datahaven as Villa Straylight
: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:
I think that "long stretch" might be a Freudian slip ;)Quote:
Privacy outways the cost concerns of my clients by a long stretch
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
Quote:
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:
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:
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.Quote:
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.
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?
:)