DropBox Security Issues
(9 posts) (6 voices)-
After what happened to MegaUpload I wouldn't trust any of those cloud services.
Posted 12 years ago # -
mikiem2
ModeratorCan you trust Dropbox etc.?
I believe the core debate on renting/using an off-site cloud centers on a couple of things... When you store data there's always the risk that something will happen & it'll get lost, damaged, stolen, deleted etc., & when you trust someone else to store your data you lose some control, have to depend on whomever to safeguard your data as well as you would. Offsetting that somewhat, it could save you money because it may cost you more to provide similar redundancy [e.g. backup or mirrored drives, protected data centers etc.], & you're often not paying for capacity you don't need when you don't need it. It seems to be accepted that using some sort of cloud arrangement can sometimes be more efficient & have advantages, & the solution Microsoft's pushing is to have more than one cloud, where you keep control of the most important stuff by keeping it in-house, renting off-site cloud capacity/capability for anything where the consequences would be less if things went wrong. You don't have to be a biz with an IT dept. to do that sort of thing. Network storage is becoming both cheaper & more common, while win8 [once you look beyond the initial interface] makes it pretty easy to add drives as your needs grow.
If you want to store sensitive data using Dropbox &/or similar services from Google, Amazon, Microsoft etc., stuff you'd encrypt anyway, maybe consider an old trick that RSA's dusting off -- split your files & store the pieces separately, in this case using different on-line services. It's harder to crack the encryption, & if they do manage, they've got something like a partial zip file -- you can also do stuff like encrypt a file, split it, & (re)encrypt the pieces. It's your stuff -- it's Your responsibility. If you store something on-line, unless you can do without it, make sure that's not the only place it's stored. Always remember that people screw up + stuff happens, so plan your data storage taking that into account. Remember that with any biz their most deep-seated goal is survival, & if that means some company like Dropbox releasing your stuff to whatever government agency, they probably will. If like Microsoft they feel someone's stuff on their servers might compromise them legally, they'll look at [spy on] everything stored, & like Amazon, if or as they feel it's necessary, refuse you any/all access to their servers. Realistically [or sadly -- take your pick] that makes sense...
People working for whatever government agency aren't all as tech knowledgeable as you are, & many want their job to be as easy as possible, regardless if that makes life harder for you or anyone else. If you're caught with something illegal, you're caught with something illegal, & often everything starts & ends right there. 10+ years ago it was common for bad guys to break or hack into on-line storage & use it to host illegal downloads -- what's changed is that now they're more technically advanced & there are millions [billions?] more potential targets. If it's got your name on it, You're responsible, at least until you convince someone or prove otherwise, which can be difficult -- people have gone to prison because they had kiddie porn on their PCs, while their attorneys & experts argued it was because their PCs were infected, that someone else had put it there. Millions of people don't know their systems have been infected with whatever malware, e.g. bots. Some experts claim there isn't any major biz network in the U.S. that hasn't been compromised. If someone gets full access to your Dropbox or similar storage they can store whatever they want, & they can change, modify the files you have stored there, replace them with infected versions.
So instead of the original question, can you trust on-line storage with Dropbox, Microsoft, Google etc., I'd suggest "How much can you trust Dropbox, Microsoft etc.". I'd think all of the major players have reasonable [but not necessarily bulletproof] security. I tend to trust Amazon a bit more because of their major corporate clients, but it's revealing to plug things like Google security breach or Amazon security breach into Google search. I use Dropbox because it came with my tablet, but only as something to transfer small files when/where it's less hassle than other methods.
Posted 12 years ago # -
@BenSando I use Gmail too. But I don't trust it for everything. And using MS "Live" anything is not going to happen. That's why I got Windows Mail to work in Win7. Took me about a week to figure it out..but it works. And, of course, I have it set NOT to auto download.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Anonymous
UnregisteredI all-so use Gmail too. But I don't trust it for one read all you mail and you log out spy on you buy send you to YouTube then go to google.co.nz for me as I live in NZ no log just out of gmail
Best way to see this if you got NoScript and Requestpolicy and you yes yes yes to all that
Posted 12 years ago #
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