@misc{17882, author = {Jan Evang and Alojz Gomola and Amreesh Phokeer}, title = {Global Trust and Network Security: The Geopolitics of Offshoring Digital Services}, abstract = {This paper presents an analysis of the state of nations off- shoring or outsourcing of digital services such as cloud platforms and data centers to foreign providers. We show that the decisions to offshore follow broader geopolitical relationships and trust dynamics within a global social network, where countries act as interconnected nodes. By examining hosting patterns, this analysis reveals clustering of im- plied trust relationships, and suggests explanations by comparing trust relationships to political alliances and other relevant factors. We further show that a similar pattern is missing from the trust in TLS root Certificate Authorities.}, year = {2025}, journal = {Passive and Active Measurement (PAM) 2025}, }