Re: Hosting Tarsnap outside the U.S. ?

[Colin Percival <cperciva@tarsnap.com>]

On 09/02/13 06:24, Asgeir Storesund Nilsen wrote:
> Given the recent controversy around storing data within reach of the NSA -- did
> you ever consider hosting Tarsnap outside the U.S somehow?

Considered, yes.  When Tarsnap launched AWS only had one region, though, and
moving now would be difficult.

> Would it be impossibly hard to host the service on something else than AWS?

Not impossible, but it would take a significant amount of development time.

> I know, the encryption protects the data, but it appears that the mere act of
> encrypting data actually increases the likelihood of the data being extracted by
> the NSA.

Considering that we're talking about the NSA here -- listening stations all over
the world, taps on underwater fibre-optic cables, etc. -- I don't see storing
data outside of the US as necessarily accomplishing much as far as keeping data
out of the NSA's hands is concerned.  I'd say that cryptography is the only
real solution.

-- 
Colin Percival
Security Officer Emeritus, FreeBSD | The power to serve
Founder, Tarsnap | www.tarsnap.com | Online backups for the truly paranoid