Data Privacy and Protection - Latest Comments

Re: Remote Backup Roundup

Longhorn — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 11:28:09 -0000

Nice post. Try www.mozy.com or www.secobackup.com - both look really ok software. We have 80GB of data over 3 servers and all are using secobackup. But the PCs are using Mozy. Hope you can add these to the list above. One of my friends uses Carbonite and has been fairly happy with it.

Re: Carbonite’s Fake Reviews

Bruce Goldensteinberg — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 17:13:52 -0000

there will be more and new incriminating information coming on this story about Carbonite in the coming days. i take no joy in exposing a company, but I feel that consumers should be protected against dishonorable companies doing whatever it takes to make a profit. stay tuned to the blogs, and to http//ftothefourth.blogspot.com for the new information. it will show that Carbonite's statements in response to these revelations are not correct.

Re: Dropbox: Remote File Syncing

amandolin — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 11:09:37 -0000

I wanted to mention that Dropbox has frozen up two times since using it on my Windows computer, making it impossible to use the Stand By, Hibernate, or even the Shut Down function until I force quit the Dropbox application. The two times it happened were a bit annoying, but it's something that I will deal with given the otherwise great functionality of Dropbox.

Re: Sandboxie: Windows Security Tool

amandolin — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 10:56:25 -0000

This is Joe's wife, and I just wanted to say that I do have a two complaints regarding Sandboxie, although they are, IMO, minor ones. The first is that it seems to take Firefox a bit longer to start up than it used to. The other is that I recently updated one of my Firefox plugins and now when I try to open up Firefox, a window pops up saying that a certain file is too large to open in the Sandbox. As a result, I have to close the file, making my plug-in no longer available. Since using Sandboxie, I've yet to use Firefox outside of Sandboxie, but I assume that if I did, I would be able to make use of the plug-in like before.

Re: My Current Recovery Strategy

Linda Lynch — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 10:17:47 -0000

I certainly applaud your commitment to testing the backups that you have in place. I hope all goes well, but even if it doesn't you will have the knowledge that you need to make adjustments to your plan.

Re: New Windows Botnet Growing

summer — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 22:10:20 -0000

I <3 Linux.

Re: Taking My Own Medicine

NikhilR — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 00:57:11 -0000

Good luck! I'd never have the guts to do what you're doing.

Re: Great Deal On a Drobo

FirstClown — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 20:52:07 -0000

I know what you're saying. It is true that the Drobo uses a proprietary format when saving the data to the hard drives and if you have a Drobo failure, you will have to buy another Drobo to read the data off the drives. I personally view this as okay since my system has been rock solid and there is a one year warranty on the product.

My backup plan right now is to get another Drobo, but that may not be the answer for everyone. This is a good point and I would say to be aware that if your Drobo dies past the one year warranty, you will have to get another Drobo to recover your data.

Re: Great Deal On a Drobo

Alan — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 13:14:38 -0000

I was almost ready to buy a Drobo after reading your post and seeing the sale price. Before pressing the purchase button I jumped over to Amazon and scanned the reviews on the Drobo. That reminded me of the issue that I had last time I looked at this device.

It's tempting to look at the Drobo solution as four hard drives, with four separate points of failure. But you can also look at this design as "one Drobo" and one point of a failure. What kind of problem would you have if you had a hardware or software issue with the Drobo? Seems like this could be a bigger mess than if you had followed some other backup scheme using individual hard drives. [See some of the unhappy people who posted reviews on Amazon for examples.]

In conclusion, it seems like you may be placing too much faith that the Drobo hardware and firmware are rock solid and will stay rock solid. I would be nervous about that -- what is your backup plan if the Drobo dies? Can you read those drives in another device? Or would you be forced to get the Drobo fixed or buy another one?

Re: Designing a Backup Plan

FirstClown — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 18:14:58 -0000

Actually, both of these topics are in the works, so stay tuned.

As far as backups go, you're plan sounds awfully complicated. I use JungleDisk (which I'll talk about soon) for my backups and it will only backup things if they've changed from the last time it was run. I have it set up to backup everything nightly and if I've added or changed photos that day, it backs them up, but doesn't bother with the ones that haven't changed. If I was backing up every time, I would look into a strategy like yours.

But that would leave me open to data loss a little too much for me to be comfortable. If I took a lot of pictures and my computer crashed in the middle of the month, those pictures are gone for good. That really doesn't sit right with me.

If your set up is due to the software you're using, you may want to look into using different software.

Re: Do You Need It?

NikhilR — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 16:27:24 -0000

Not sure about iTunes, but Amazon's MP3 store has let me re-download music before.

Re: Designing a Backup Plan

NikhilR — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 16:26:11 -0000

I'm interested in your thoughts regarding frequency of backups. I use a backup program to run incremental backup jobs nightly (on data that changes most often, such as source code, documents, etc.), weekly (for less frequently updated files, such as photos, etc.), and then monthly, for everything else, including my music & video library. Is this overkill?

Finally - (and this may be fodder for a future post), I would love to hear your thoughts on password management strategies.

Re: Do You Need It?

FirstClown — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 07:54:55 -0000

There seems to be stories that Apple will help out if you have a problem and allow you to redownload your purchase history. I know a personal story of a friend of mine that was able to do it once and here's a story from a couple of years back of someone asking about redownloading their music from iTunes. I'll update the post though, since it doesn't seem like it's officially in the iTunes Terms of Service.

Re: Do You Need It?

Alan — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 21:10:18 -0000

"If you have music you bought from iTunes, you could just redownload it if you lost it."

Unless the Apple policy has changed, this isn't the case. Years ago I remember the discussion on one of the Podcasts that in rare cases Apple MIGHT allow someone to download the files again. Usually they recommend that you backup the music files, as you will not be able to download the files from Apple again.

Re: WPA Key Exchange Cracked

Summer — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 21:28:34 -0000

eek!

Re: WPA Key Exchange Cracked

FirstClown — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 22:19:52 -0000

If it's a truly open network, meaning that you don't need a password to get onto it, then anyone can see your activity. They can read the webpages your looking at, if they're not over HTTPS, your email, everything.

If you're logged in via WEP, you're basically in the same boat. If you're not sure, you should be able to go to your wireless icon on your computer and select something like "Get Info" for the connection. It should tell you what you're using.

I'll talk more about this soon (I need more hours in the day!), but if you aren't putting in a password, everyone can see the data you're sending over the network.

Re: WPA Key Exchange Cracked

Summer — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 21:54:23 -0000

Wait, okay, this is something I never really understood. Now I know that if I use an open network, the router keeps track of my activity - that makes sense. But anyone who's on the network can see it too? OR do they have to do something to get to my info?

I share a network with other people, who I'm fairly certain aren't interested in my stuff, but still.... it makes me wonder.

Re: Dropbox: Remote File Syncing

Summer — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 18:16:40 -0000

Joe, I can not tell you how useful and helpful these blog posts are. Thank you. This is the kind of stuff I don't get around to making more convenient for myself because I don't know how. You are explaining it so clearly, I "get" it and totally plan to make adjustments to my data storage.

Thank you!!!

Re: Dropbox: Remote File Syncing

FirstClown — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:07:56 -0000

You will want to check the law as well, of course. I am not a lawyer. :)

Re: Dropbox: Remote File Syncing

FirstClown — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 10:51:14 -0000

You should be worried and I would not put that information unencrypted on Dropbox.

I'll be talking about this very issue soon, but if you want to read ahead in the book (High School reference! Get it!) check out TrueCrypt. TrueCrypt is a program that lets you set up virtual hard drives with very strong encryption. One great thing is that it also runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

So what you can do is create a TrueCrypt volume, which is just a file on your hard drive, and put it into your Dropbox folder so that it's available from home and office. Then, when you want to work on the files within it, mount it to the computer you're on and it shows up as a hard drive. When your done working (and this is important) unmount it in TrueCrypt and Dropbox will sync it up again.

Since it's encrypted with only a password you know, even if someone gets it off of Dropbox somehow, they won't be able to read anything within it.

Like I said, I hope to go into detail soon on that set up since I use it myself. Feel free to email me any questions you have if you're bold enough to try it out.

Re: Dropbox: Remote File Syncing

Summer — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 09:52:09 -0000

That is nifty.

I am worried about the file security. When doing massage I take client data (medical, etc) which is under strict confidentiality laws. I would like (LOVE) to have it online somewhere so I can access such information from the office and home. I'm very very worried about it through.

Any ideas on what to do?