Anonymous VPS for Whistleblowers and SecureDrop
Whistleblowers are the highest-risk users of anonymous infrastructure. A leaked document with a traceable origin can end a career, draw criminal prosecution under the US Espionage Act or equivalent foreign statutes, and in some jurisdictions endanger life. SecureDrop was designed precisely to break the link between source and journalist. Anubiz Host runs anonymous offshore VPS pre-configured for SecureDrop deployment: no identity collected at signup, crypto-only payment, Tor hidden service binding built into the default network stack.
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Why SecureDrop Is the Standard
SecureDrop was developed by the Freedom of the Press Foundation specifically to defeat source identification. It runs as a Tor hidden service, requires no JavaScript on the source-facing interface, generates random codenames for sources, and air-gaps the journalist-side decryption from the public-facing intake server. Major newsrooms including The New York Times, The Guardian, The Washington Post, and ProPublica run SecureDrop instances precisely because no other system gives sources comparable assurances.
The infrastructure underneath SecureDrop matters as much as the application itself. Running SecureDrop on a hosting account registered to a real person undoes most of its value. The intake interface is anonymized but the operator is not. Anonymous offshore hosting closes that gap.
Deployment Architecture
A standard SecureDrop deployment on Anubiz uses at minimum two servers:
- Application server: The Tor-facing source intake interface. Mini-V at $12/mo or Romania VPS I at $49.99/mo is sufficient for most newsrooms.
- Monitor server: Runs the OSSEC monitoring for the application server. Can be Mini at $6/mo.
The journalist workstation is typically air-gapped and not hosted - decryption happens offline. The transit between Tor intake and journalist workstation uses encrypted USB media.
Both servers should run in different jurisdictions if budget allows. Iceland for the application server, Romania for the monitor server is a common pattern.
Operational Considerations for Newsrooms
A SecureDrop instance is a sustained operational commitment. Considerations:
- Maintenance window: Tor hidden service descriptors need to be reachable. Plan downtime announcements via the public site, not via the SecureDrop instance.
- Source education: Publish clear instructions for sources, ideally on the public site behind HSTS. Document Tor Browser setup and Tails OS use.
- Submission triage: Decide how often the air-gapped workstation is used to decrypt submissions. Daily is typical for major outlets; weekly is acceptable for smaller newsrooms.
- Codename management: Train all journalists who handle submissions to refer to sources only by codename in subsequent communications.
- Hardening drills: Quarterly test of the intake-to-workstation pipeline with a test submission.
Pricing and Getting Started
Minimum SecureDrop deployment cost: $18 per month combining Mini-V for the app server and Mini for the monitor. We can pre-install SecureDrop on request if you provide a hardened base image checksum. The standard deployment guide from the Freedom of the Press Foundation works without modification on our Iceland and Romania offerings.
Read the investigative journalist guide and the corporate whistleblower guide for adjacent use cases. Browse plans to begin.
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