LinkBack URL
About LinkBacksAt some point, all these companies are either going to:
A go bust, or
B change the Ts and Cs so that you have to start paying, in the hope that you've become addicted and have no exit strategy.
At some point, all these companies are either going to:
A go bust, or
B change the Ts and Cs so that you have to start paying, in the hope that you've become addicted and have no exit strategy.
If I actually had decent upload speed so I could get my data there I'd be happy to put some of my stuff on there.
It's currently not backed up at all due to money for hdds, and since there's no sensitive data, I've no problems with them being able to see it.
Tempting. I have loads of pics/videos/app backups/game saves etc I'd'd love to backup offsite and I can't see how they would be of value to anyone but me and my family. At least with FTTC it would eventually be uploaded. I wouldn't use it for sensitive data however.
Anyone know how the upload works? I have an old Windows Home Server machine that would have to do the work which would make using a web app quite difficult.
There might be some use for this, even with the lack of trust. I'll have to investigate what methods of encryption are available and how reliable they are.
If a large number of people who sue this service were to sue good quality encryption, any prying eyes there may be would have to give up trying to snoop on the information, simply due to the enormity of the task of decrypting it. However, if not enough people use encryption, the few who use it would actually attract more attention.
I've actually seen this suggested as a way to counter the espionage efforts of the American government: if enough people encrypt their data, even the completely trivial and mundane stuff, American intelligence will we so overwhelmed with decryption tasks that they'll have to give up (and spy on us in other ways, I guess).
I could easily see myself filling up 10TB in a few years time - I already have about 2.5TB storage use, with storage so cheap I rip all my blu-rays and music cds but without compression (why compromise?). The problem is that they say the servers will be based in US.
Despite all rips only being for my or my family personal use, I have a horrible feeling that I would be in breach of US law and at risk of massive fines so I will not use any cloud based system as back up if it has servers in the US
Tencent have content delivery networks all across the globe so it's likely that your data will pass through a whole load of other countries (especially EU countries like Italy, Russia, France). Just because your data is stored in another country it shouldn't make you liable to that country's laws. That onus is on the company providing the service. Your liability is tied to the country in which the service is based. Although, check the terms of use as they may stipulate that it extends to the laws and regulations of the country you are based in and/or the country you use the services in.Originally Posted by cjs150
gerryw: if the servers are in the US that means your files/data are in the US. That gives US enforcement agencies the jurisdiction to go after you personally but also the right to close down those servers and take away your files/data.
That is not a problem as long as you never go to the US and you can afford to lose your files/data.
From China, of all places? No way.
Commercial cloud storage in general, I'll pass.
Got a small, low-energy server sat on my home network, running 24/7, with ample storage and automated backups, all made accessible over the interwebs to access wherever I might be. Personal cloud - job done.
I take your point, though personally, my issues aren't just about privacy but about confidence of access.
On encryption, though, you cannot know just how secure ANY form of encryption is.
Right now, there are several forms that are believed to be uncracked, and uncrackable. But then, that's what the Nazi's thought about Enigma and their High Command comms links. Arguably, being wrong about that cost them the war.
The ONLY way to be sure encryption packages don't have backdoors in them is, first, to use open source code. second, to either inspect the code yourself or have it done by someone you trust (and be right, either about your own skills or the integrity of whoever you trust), and third, compile the executables yourself.
And that's just backdoors.
We KNOW the US, UK and China have very large and very well-funded cyber operations. I'd be stunned if Russia, France, Germany, Israel amd very likely others too, didn't also have advanced programs.
Which begs the question .... if some such intelligence organisation had cracked the "uncrackable" encryption, or manages it next week, just how secret, how classified, will that fact be? My guess is .... right up their with nuclear launch codes, because it may well be the single most valuable secret any modern government could have.
Am I paranoid? No, because I'm not suggesting it has been cracked, or even that (short, perhaps, of quantum computers to do it) it can be cracked. My point is, if it has been or can be, we are unlikely to find out.
What, personally, I can be sure of is that my data cannot be cracked unless someone can get acccess to it, and for the more personal of my personal data, that currently means a physical break-in, and copying/stealing of drives it's stored on. Nothing I'm doing is likely to be of interest to the NSA, CIA, MI5 or Chinese Army Intelligence, and certainly not so as to justify being burgled by spooks. But they CAN'T crack encrypted data if they don't have the data. If you hand it to them on a plate ....
This thread is greatly enhanced by the cloud-to-butt extension.
"I'm not putting my data in my butt. Period."
Sounds good - but presumably if it's on your home network, then it's also "next to" the systems it's protecting. So great if you're the victim of a disk failure etc, but not so good if you get one of the old flood/fire/riot trio - which'd take out originals and all the backups.
Then again, I'm in the same boat at the moment.It's only my mails, photos, mp3 purchases and various insurance documents that are stored in the cloud, so offsite. It keeps me awake night worrying about 10 years+ of irreplaceable photos (and other things) that only exist at one physical location.
Career status: still enjoying my new career in DevOps, but it's keeping me busy...
I wasn't planning on it, but if that's what floats your boat ....
You are, if course, right aboyt flood, fire, riot, etc. I'd add burglary as being more likely, here at least, than any of those. But risks, none the less.Sounds good - but presumably if it's on your home network, then it's also "next to" the systems it's protecting. So great if you're the victim of a disk failure etc, but not so good if you get one of the old flood/fire/riot trio - which'd take out originals and all the backups.
Then again, I'm in the same boat at the moment.
Personally, I break data down into three broad categories: live, vackup and archive.
Live is obvious. Backup is scheduled duplucation of live. But archive is, for me, a bit different. It includes several out-of-date backups, but it also includes several categories of data that, by their nature, don't change.
So, for example, I have a lot of documents in an document-image category, from birth certificates, to property deeds, share certs, to business invoices (sales and purchase) and bank statements, as well as photos, family videos, medical records, etc. And, by their nature, once created, those images won't change. I mean, a photo might be edired, but the original high quality scan is, short of the actual document, negative, etc, the master.
So those files are archived, and archived on multiple media, like remocable HD, optical disk (MO, even DVD-RAM) and even cheap and cheerful DVD-R. And those are kept off-site, safe in a relative's home.
In the event of a fire, etc, I might lose some very recent data changes, I might even lose the most recent backup, but I won't lose all backups, or any off-site archives.
It's all about, as with any backup strategy, an evaluation of relative risk versus the time, trouble, inconvenuence and cost involved in mitigating that risk. Some people don't use a PC for anything "personal", but aside from documents I HAVE to keep safe, for HMRC or Companies Act purposes, for instance, there's a lot of data that doesn't change (like scans of bank statements) that I certainly don't want getting into criminal hands.
That's why, while I get that cloud storage may be great for many people, for me, no way in hell, regardless of how much is offered, what it costs, or who offers it.
There seems to be a lot of tinfoil hats around, and I suppose it will depend on how you use computers as to exactly what sensitive data you have behind airgaps and on cold drives. The only data on my network I'd be distraught about losing is things like wedding photos etc. These are all held across 2 machines, my server, and flikr as well as a dvd at each parent's house. Backups to the server are automated but versioned so the diskcryption type viruses should be easily revertable.
Anything other than that can go quite happily - I might be annoyed if my save games went, but I really don't care that much.
As for 'sensitive' information I don't actually have anything on any of my machines I'd consider a risk. All my bank accounts are 2 factor, and I don't have anything else on there I think anyone else could use -certainly not scans of ID documents etc. Why would you need that? Its not like anyone will accept them as proof of ID, and duplicates are very easy to come by.
Hmm, I wouldn't necessarily say no to it. Lately I've been experimenting with time lapse photography, and you can easily take 500+ photos for just 30 seconds. If you shoot in RAW, that's easily a dozen GB, which adds up. Those are not sensitive personal data, and since I am doing this as a hobby, I don't even really need to worry that much about protecting my "work" in the unlikely scenario anyone really is interested anyway. I already use a paid cloud storage service, but sadly it is on the slow side (2.5-5MBit won't do for mass backup). My upload speed is considerably faster (over 50MBit/sec), so uploading a dozen of GB could technically wouldn't take an excessive amount of time provided the server can cope with it (and if the servers are in Asia, it'll probably the odds might be better than it'll be faster than what I am using right now). So I guess that the main concern would be the software used to backup does more than what is advertised..
For non personal/business stuff then I don't see it being run by a Chinese company as an issue.... for business stuff, not a chance because I have a lot of nda's with my work and linking that to China, even from a distance would be suicide for my business. Personal stuff, doubtful, we get enough spam calls as it is...
Have to say my preference is remote access/backup to my home server when I'm out of the office if needed. I might not get as much storage but it's in my opinion more 'secure' from spying eyes.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
