Another Personal Storage Discussion
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@IRJ I'm not a conspiracy theorist. I'm advancing very real world concerns that are based on actual events.
Maybe you don't care to build in mass surveillance into your threat models, but that doesn't mean it is irrational to do so. (Personally, I think you're a fool if you don't.) A lot more matters in life than the cash in your pocket or the numbers in your bank account.
The border patrol thing is a great example. As a Canadian tech journo I need to periodically get into the US to do my job. If I am unable to do so because of data hoovered up by the US government, I've got a big problem.
I can do absolutely nothing wrong and yet still have huge roadblocks put in my way because some algorithm interpreted data poorly, or because someone who knows someone I know did something wrong. That's simply the reality of how things work today.
Can I keep the NSA out of my data if they are making a concerted effort to attack me personally? No. Targeted efforts by any state actor and 95% of non-state hacking groups would steamroller any defenses I (or any cloud/service provider) could mount. That's the cold, hard truth.
Despite this, I can take some very simple efforts to remove myself from mass surveillance trawling. In reality, I am far more likely to be negatively affected by mass surveillance (and associated Big Data analysis) than I am a targeted attack.
Targeted attacks are like meteor impacts: there isn't a heck of a lot you can do about them as an individual so you pretty much have to ignore them. (Disaster recovery is useful here, from an IT standpoint.)
But mass surveillance is a very real, very tangible threat that impacts most if not all of us. And it is something we can do something about. So why not take the steps to protect yourself?
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Not gonna argue over the internet today. I gotta do storm prep...
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So back onto the topic and answering the question at hand. (Tired of reading ML rants/conspiracy theories/arguments tbh.)
Doesn't Microsoft provide a 2FA service for their accounts? This would add an extra layer of security to your current onedrive account. I've recently setup LastPass with all Randomly generated passwords for security purposes. These have made my account far less "hackable."
As far as backing up the system you could use Veeam endpoint and sync up an S3 Bucket @ AWS if you wanted to. Problem with this is if the system does go down and you have a BMR backup you're still tied to that make/model of PC.
Just keep what is absolutely necessary/needed in the cloud account. (This is what I do.)
I don't have any programs/VMs that aren't entirely rebuild-able or mandatory for me to have. If my PC does one day take a turn for the worst I'll throw in a drive and configure what I need at that point. Yes cloud hosted system backups are a good idea but they come at a cost which to me isn't worth it rn.
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@zuphzuph Why back up a whole system image? Back up data, configs and (maybe) installers. 2FA is the sort of thing every public cloud account that handles sensitive data should have, however, that doesn't remove the need to encrypt the local/NAS copy.
It's also good practice to encrypt what you're putting into cloud storage (be that OneDrive or any backup solution, such as Backblaze, Glacier, etc). Your level of trust/care about being party to Yahoo-style mass surveillance will determine whether or not you want to take the minimal effort required to defend against that threat. (I take offence to rational concerns backed up by evidence called conspiracy theories, BTW. There are enough of those out there without vilifying legitimate threats.)
I should also point out that your ability to solve your own personal storage needs by basically saying "meh, **** it, I'll take the risk" re: backups is pretty rare. I personally have at least three non-phone devices, certainly wouldn't relish rebuilding them!
"Personal use" can also include spouse, children, etc. It doesn't take much for running a household's IT to become as complicated as running that of a small business. More pressing, perhaps, as the angry users know where you sleep.
Also..."just keep what you need in the cloud account" isn't enough for some things. That's okay for my music collection, but I'm going to want better redundancy that that for my home pictures and my tax returns.
3-2-1: Your data should be on three devices, on two different types of media with one of those copies being offsite.
If your data doesn't exist in at least two places, then it simply doesn't exist. Being in OneDrive/Dropbox/etc isn't good enough. Public cloud services have had failures and they have lost data. So if you want to use cloud as your primary storage location, make sure you back that cloud up to another, separate cloud.
Alternately, keep a local copy that is really, really unlikely to go pfffft at the same time the cloud copy has an oopsie. Given how awesome cheap NASes are at this stuff today, proper layered backups should be achievable for cheap, even for the home user.
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@cakeis_not_alie said in Another Personal Storage Discussion:
@zuphzuph Why back up a whole system image? Back up data, configs and (maybe) installers. 2FA is the sort of thing every public cloud account that handles sensitive data should have, however, that doesn't remove the need to encrypt the local/NAS copy.
It's also good practice to encrypt what you're putting into cloud storage (be that OneDrive or any backup solution, such as Backblaze, Glacier, etc). Your level of trust/care about being party to Yahoo-style mass surveillance will determine whether or not you want to take the minimal effort required to defend against that threat. (I take offence to rational concerns backed up by evidence called conspiracy theories, BTW. There are enough of those out there without vilifying legitimate threats.)
I should also point out that your ability to solve your own personal storage needs by basically saying "meh, **** it, I'll take the risk" re: backups is pretty rare. I personally have at least three non-phone devices, certainly wouldn't relish rebuilding them!
"Personal use" can also include spouse, children, etc. It doesn't take much for running a household's IT to become as complicated as running that of a small business. More pressing, perhaps, as the angry users know where you sleep.
Also..."just keep what you need in the cloud account" isn't enough for some things. That's okay for my music collection, but I'm going to want better redundancy that that for my home pictures and my tax returns.
3-2-1: Your data should be on three devices, on two different types of media with one of those copies being offsite.
If your data doesn't exist in at least two places, then it simply doesn't exist. Being in OneDrive/Dropbox/etc isn't good enough. Public cloud services have had failures and they have lost data. So if you want to use cloud as your primary storage location, make sure you back that cloud up to another, separate cloud.
Alternately, keep a local copy that is really, really unlikely to go pfffft at the same time the cloud copy has an oopsie. Given how awesome cheap NASes are at this stuff today, proper layered backups should be achievable for cheap, even for the home user.
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@zuphzuph don't be a dick. If you cannot handle participation, don't. Aside from your bitching, there was nothing bad in this conversation.
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@JaredBusch said in Another Personal Storage Discussion:
@zuphzuph don't be a dick. If you cannot handle participation, don't. Aside from your bitching, there was nothing bad in this conversation.
Contributed what I wanted to and nothing more.
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@JaredBusch said in Another Personal Storage Discussion:
@zuphzuph don't be a dick. If you cannot handle participation, don't. Aside from your bitching, there was nothing bad in this conversation.
I'm glad I brought at least one dick to this thread.
@JaredBusch -
Really??? Grow up people.
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@Jason Maybe Tor is easy to track but what about OpenVPN or Proxy. If we combine these two technologies, you will obtain 99, 9 % privacy, security and anonymity while working on the Internet . There are many threats on the Internet and one needs a qualitative protection for his sensitive data. The good news is that there is a vast variety of technologies that are designed for protecting your network from all the threats. The bad news is that some of the technologies, like Tor, don’t include all the necessary functions for one’s secure network. That’s why sometimes it’s better to combine different technologies
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@Murtlap said in Another Personal Storage Discussion:
@Jason Maybe Tor is easy to track but what about OpenVPN or Proxy. If we combine these two technologies, you will obtain 99, 9 % privacy, security and anonymity while working on the Internet.
Eh? If you combine those technologies, the research has already been showing that you can loose your anonymity through TOR. You can have privacy and security without TOR, just with VPN.
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@Dashrender but not with a free one
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@Murtlap said in Another Personal Storage Discussion:
@Dashrender but not with a free one
I run my own from the VPS I use as a home lab. Not free exactly, but doesn't cost very much.
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@Murtlap said in Another Personal Storage Discussion:
@Dashrender but not with a free one
I'm confused - what's not a free one? VPN? If you find a free VPN, what wouldn't be secure/private about it? Being paid doesn't make it more or less secure/private.
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@Dashrender yes it was talking about free vpn. Here is main disadvantages:
usafe or no encryption protocols;
IPv6 DNS and/or WebRTC leaks;
inconvenient queuing during a server accessing;
access to a very limited number of servers;
bans on Torrenting and P2P sharing;
limited Linux platform support as well as limited devices support -
That stuff might all be true, but I guess we're off track because I'm not really sure what you're driving at, or how we got here.
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@Murtlap said in Another Personal Storage Discussion:
@Dashrender yes it was talking about free vpn. Here is main disadvantages:
usafe or no encryption protocols;
IPv6 DNS and/or WebRTC leaks;
inconvenient queuing during a server accessing;
access to a very limited number of servers;
bans on Torrenting and P2P sharing;
limited Linux platform support as well as limited devices supportI don't have any of those issues with some free VPNs.
