The first details about CyberBunker 3.0 are coming soon, but the new bullet-proof web hosting service will not go online before this summer.
Sven-Olaf Kamphuis is currently preparing everything for CyberBunker 3.0. The first CyberBunker went online near Kloetinge (Zeeland, Netherlands) in 1996. In the meantime, it also hosted the Wikileaks disclosure platform and the P2P indexer The Pirate Bay. After moving to Germany, the service, which once belonged to the company CB3ROB, focussed on storing illegal content of all kinds.
Customers were promised a web hosting service that would not respond to any requests from the authorities in return for payment. In September 2019, no fewer than 650 emergency services searched the former Nato bunker near Traben-Trarbach.
Founder and ex-operator Herman Johan Xennt has been in prison ever since, while co-operator Kamphuis went unpunished. We described the exact story in our review of the Netflix documentary. And now it’s starting all over again. We spoke in detail with Sven-Olav Kamphuis, who wants to bring CyberBunker 3.0 online by the summer at the latest.
Update: Copycat or honeypot, that is the question!
We have been taken in by a fake. Tom Funken contacted us today with the news that Sven Olaf doesn’t know anything about the interview. We contacted him at vk.com, where we know for sure that it is the real Kamphuis. He writes to us:
No, it’s not crazy. A certain „bigger player“ has been busy impersonating us for months. Be it with Cyberbunker https://cyberbunker.ch or their own YouTube channel. Neither of them are us. One of them even made it onto Netflix at minute 11:27.
‚cyberbunker.ch‘ aka s&s holding has registered networks and all that under our name since 2021 or so. I think ’some guys‘ are trying to set up a honeypot for our customers. By the way, I’m not the only one who has multiple doppelgangers trying to impersonate me online.
Wow, that was not to be expected. We must apologise to all our readers for the newspaper hoax. Next time, we will certainly not fall for such crooked methods. Either someone wants to generate money from the cyberbunker’s notoriety or is actually setting up a honeypot on behalf of the authorities. It is to be feared that the true background will probably never come to light.
The CyberBunker strives for autonomy and freedom of speech
Tarnkappe.info: How did the idea of founding the CyberBunker come about in the first place? And why was it always focused on offers in the grey area?
Sven-Olaf Kamphuis: The main goal of CyberBunker is to transform our nuclear bunker into a state-of-the-art, self-sustaining data centre. We strive to ensure freedom of expression, a free Internet for all and the security of our customers‘ data through physical measures.
Tarnkappe.info: The first CyberBunker was launched in 1996. What was your role back then? Has your role changed in the second version?
Kamphuis: I am Prince Sven-Olaf van CyberBunker-Kamphuis of the Ministry of Telecommunications and Transport in the Republic of CyberBunker, at all locations.
Tarnkappe.info: The placement in the NATO bunker was obviously not sufficient for a secure data centre at the time, was it? Why did you pretend to customers that the servers were in a secure location?
Kamphuis: The location was always secure, the only problem at the time was our transit connections to various carriers. We were already looking for a new location. This problem was partially solved at our facility in Germany. However, we did not expect our fibre optic cables to be tampered with from the outside.
At our new location, our connections are equipped with the latest standards and technologies. They are physically protected from external forces and provide our data centre and its customers with enormous bandwidth.
„We don’t even want to know what our customers are doing.“
Tarnkappe.info: With CyberBunker 2.0, the servers were actually located in the facility. How do you feel about the fact that you enabled fraud forums, the online trading centre „Wall Street Market“ and many other cybercriminals to operate? On the contrary, there is nothing wrong with hosting Wikileaks or The Pirate Bay.
Kamphuis: You have to compare our servers with safe deposit boxes. We don’t know what’s on them and we have no interest in investigating it. It’s none of our business, it’s our customers‘ business.
Furthermore, with our new locations and revised hosting model, the physical location of our customers‘ data will no longer be known in any of our data centres. Both the customer and governments will no longer be able to assign a server to a specific location, as it can be located in any of our data centres, no matter where.
We are not involved in any activities – legal or otherwise – of our customers. We act legally and correctly with our services to create a better, free and private Internet for all.
CyberBunker 3.0 accepts customers of all kinds
Tarnkappe.info: Which sort of customers you didn’t accept under any circumstances? Were there any limits in this respect?
Kamphuis: No. It’s not our business, our customers are responsible for themselves. The Internet is a free place for everyone. It should not be controlled or monitored by governments or censorship organisations.
Tarnkappe.info: Why did you grant access to the cyberbunker to several people that nobody knew? The authorities managed to smuggle in the gardener and a cleaning lady as informants beforehand.
Kamphuis: We have never and will never let anyone we don’t know into one of our bunkers/data centres or anywhere near them.
In future, no strangers will be allowed anywhere near it
Tarnkappe.info: Well, the Netflix documentary talks about the search for volunteers who were granted access. For example, the gardener who looked after the grounds outside and a cleaning lady who was also allowed into the complex.
Kamphuis: They were volunteers. We carried out background checks, but not enough, as you can see. We won’t have a volunteer programme in the future. It was Xennt’s idea.
Tarnkappe.info: Or did you perhaps just feel too safe?
Kamphuis: Why shouldn’t we feel safe? Nothing can penetrate through the metre-thick walls underground into one of our data centres.
Tarnkappe.info: Does it even make sense to operate such a data centre within the EU? In Eastern Europe etc., the authorities there would have far fewer problems with it.
Kamphuis: We have temporarily suspended our activities in Germany due to the current legal dispute between Mr Angerer and the Republic of CyberBunker. As soon as the war is over, which is not yet the case, we will move back to our illegally closed location. However, we are moving our servers to our new data centres in a better jurisdiction.
And not only that, we are not giving up and will come back bigger and stronger than Angerer could have ever imagined. (Note: This refers to Senior Public Prosecutor Jörg Angerer. Angerer is head of the State Cybercrime Centre in Rheinland-Pfalz).
„None of us has done anything wrong!“
Tarnkappe.info: CyberBunker founder Xennt is serving his prison sentence. How comes that you are still free?
Kamphuis: Xennt, our partners, members and I have done nothing wrong.
Let me ask you: How would you feel if you were accused and punished for something you didn’t do?
Tarnkappe.info: Assuming everyone in the Cyberbunker team is innocent, some like Xennt were convicted, but not you. How could that happen? That’s very strange.
Kamphuis: He was worried about what was happening to our organisation. The German government has no right to enter our premises.
Tarnkappe.info: I probably won’t get a proper answer to that. But something else: How are your „friends“ from Spamhaus, whom you hit with what was once the biggest DDoS attack, doing? Are you maintaining your friendship, as you always have?
Kamphuis: We are not friends with Spamhaus because they are a censorship organisation.
The CyberBunker 3.0 team keeps its distance from Spamhaus
Tarnkappe.info: That was meant ironically, of course.
Kamphuis: We maintain our friendly distance. We (CyberBunker) were never involved in the technical difficulties that Spamhaus had many years ago. Perhaps they simply need to find a better hosting provider. Perhaps their previous connection to the Internet was also insufficient to run a data centre? We don’t know.
Tarnkappe.info: What’s next? Cyberbunker.ch is now online. Is it just a historical memorial platform? Or do you want to take up the old business again?
Kamphuis: The Republic, or CyberBunker, is expanding its business and domestication into a more compelling and robust jurisdiction, outside the EU, where data protection laws are accepted and legally enshrined and „freedom of speech“ is also widely accepted and supported.
Cyberbunker 3.0 is still in a very early stage
Tarnkappe.info: Are you still preparing everything, or is the service already up and running?
Kamphuis: We are still in the preparation phase.
Tarnkappe.info: When can we actually expect CyberBunker 3.0 to go online, in about four to five weeks?
Kamphuis: We expect to announce details in the next few weeks. The launch will most likely take place this summer.
Tarnkappe.info: And last but not least. Have you ever stood as a candidate for the Pirate Party? You can be seen in several photos with their flag.
Kamphuis: We stand for freedom of speech, net neutrality, patent law and anti-censorship. We actively fight against abuses in these categories.
Nobody owns the Internet, not even governments!
Tarnkappe.info: What will you be doing in five or ten years‘ time, the same as today?
Kamphuis: We will of course continue to work to make the Internet free from censorship and to protect our customers‘ privacy, which is being taken away from them by law enforcement agencies, other providers and governments worldwide. The Internet is a free place, there are no „owners of the Internet“.
We endeavour to provide what people need on the Internet. Data protection. Bulletproof privacy.
Tarnkappe.info: Sven-Olaf, thank you very much for answering our questions! Further information can be obtained by visiting the website cyberbunker.ch – perhaps you should activate a trustworthy VPN service* beforehand as a preventive measure.
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