The physical web server that once stored thousands of leaked documents and other material for the website Wikileaks is up for sale.
Swedish-based web service provider Bahnhof announced last week it was selling the Dell Poweredge R410 server on eBay. Bahnhof says the server once stored thousands of “Cablegate” documents leaked by Wikileaks.
The server contains the same hard drive used by Wikileaks when the server was rented, though Bahnhof says data has since been erased in compliance with a Department of Defense standard so that “original information cannot be recreated, not even by (the) NSA.” The Swedish-based ISP says the server is in working order and can be used by whoever wins the auction.
Bahnhof says it can prove the server was rented by Wikileaks by showing the winner a hosting contract that contains Wikileaks founder Julian Assange’s signature.
Though Bahnhof owns the server, Wikileaks seemed unhappy that the company was putting it up for auction. On September 2nd, the whistleblower website tweeted that Bahnhof “did not seek permission to auction the WikiLeaks server or to use it for marketing purposes, or to send the proceeds to others.”
The eBay auction started at $1. The current bid as of Monday morning was $25,200.
Bahnhof says proceeds from the auction will benefit the 5th of July Foundation and Reporters without Borders. The auction ends on Thursday.
