Question An affordable SFTP/Cloud storage for personal data?

[SiberianTiger]

Hi Community,

I'm pondering over a question, what's best to use for safeguarding my personal data/documents/photo/video/music archives. This day's size is over 0.5 TB. These two considerations rule out public storage systems dedicated to pictures only, or to document storage only, for instance. Also, as far as I can see, there is no such thing as an Internet storage provided gratis, for the amount of data I need. On other hand, I find costs charged by SugarSync service for individual users much too aggressive. I would only like to pay about $100 annually per such a service. Otherwise, it's much more sane to buy another USB drive (and pay only once for it; and be sure no one pokes his nose in my data, ever).

Is there any chance of finding one?

 

[garyw]

Amazon S3. I've got 5GB stored there and am paying £2 a month. £1.50 of which is a bank charge because S3 charge in US Dollars.

The data storage costs are amazingly cheap so well worth a look.

 

[Artlav]

Last time i looked there was a file storage service called myspace, which offered to store 500Mb for free. But it seems to collapse years ago, and i never heard of such services again.

What about privacy? Anyone can look into the data stored online, no?
How is that better than keeping a copy somewhere safe, or quite literally in a bank safe?

 

[garyw]

What about privacy? Anyone can look into the data stored online, no?
How is that better than keeping a copy somewhere safe, or quite literally in a bank safe?

According to S3 the data is encrypted but you want to be sure you should encrypt confidential data prior to transfer.

Putting a hard drive in a bank safe is a fine option but I prefer S3 because I can do a file restore on a rainy Sunday without having to go to the bank and remove the hard drive plus I can schedule online backups of key data.

 

[tblaxland]

According to S3 the data is encrypted but you want to be sure you should encrypt confidential data prior to transfer.

It is probably in Amazon's own interests to be unable to know what is stored there - plausible deniability.

 

[SiberianTiger]

It is probably in Amazon's own interests to be unable to know what is stored there - plausible deniability.

Yes, by they still can provide an encryption key by an authoritative demand. This is not concerning me much, however.

 

[garyw]

Yes, Amazon encrypt with a Master key. You also have a private key so they can decrypt if required and is why I recommend encrypting anything sensitive. I don't know what security Amazon have around the Master key.

One of the things I back up is an encrypted file that holds all my passwords. It's one of the few things I do want offsite, backed up regularly and totally secure.

 

[Wishbone]

Why not go for terabyte drives? Or SSDs?

 

[SiberianTiger]

Why not go for terabyte drives? Or SSDs?

I really have nowhere to keep them outside my home (which is necessary to guarantee data safety in case of fire or robbery), and, as garyw pointed out, it's not easy to maintain backups when your data are somewhere you've got to plan a trip to at least a day before you go.

 

[Wishbone]

Not even a garage? (Russian banks are definitely *not* a viable option, renting a safe costs too much).

 

[garyw]

How would a garage help? In a fire you could lose the main data and the backup data.

What you need for proper data protection, the recommended distance between live data and backup data is 20 miles.

 

[SiberianTiger]

Not even a garage? (Russian banks are definitely *not* a viable option, renting a safe costs too much).

Not even a shed, sorry.

---------- Post added at 20:33 ---------- Previous post was at 20:32 ----------

How would a garage help? In a fire you could lose the main data and the backup data.

A cultural thing: Russian garages are mostly not integrated with homes.

---------- Post added at 20:35 ---------- Previous post was at 20:33 ----------

What you need for proper data protection, the recommended distance between live data and backup data is 20 miles.

So probably having your backup data at a different continent is a good idea, which was one of my points.

 

[Wishbone]

Sorry for that, my only remaining suggestion was burying backup in the woods... or giving it to the in-laws... Re: 20 miles - it won't help in Moscow in case of ... well ... WW3... www.multiupload.com may be a partial solution if you've got broadband and time to spare.

 

[Hielor]

it won't help in Moscow in case of ... well ... WW3...

I think that if WW3 happens, you'll probably have bigger concerns than whether or not your data is safe...

Like whether or not you have power to run computers to access it.

 

[garyw]

Sorry for that, my only remaining suggestion was burying backup in the woods... or giving it to the in-laws... Re: 20 miles - it won't help in Moscow in case of ... well ... WW3... www.multiupload.com may be a partial solution if you've got broadband and time to spare.

Isn't that open to all and only there for a limited time?

I also didn't like this bit in the T's & C's

Multiupload.com makes no warranty that (I) the Service will meet your requirements, (II) the service will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error-free, (III) the results that may be obtained from the use of the service will be accurate or reliable, (IV) the quality of any products, services, information, or other material purchased or obtained by you through the Service will meet your expectations, and (V) any errors in the software will be corrected; (c) any material downloaded or otherwise obtained through the use of the Service is done at your own discretion and risk and that you will be solely responsible for any damage to your computer system or loss of data that results from the download of any such material

at least with S3 its in a secure data center and encrypted.

 

[Wishbone]

Uploading data to another continent is by definition Non-Secure, Absolutely (pun intended).

 

[garyw]

Wrong. VPN's, encryption, etc, etc. There are many ways of making data transfer secure.

S3 will allow you to create a storage facility in America or Europe and upload from anywhere. It also limits access to your account only and is designed to be am Online Backup Solution.

 

[Keatah]

How would a garage help? In a fire you could lose the main data and the backup data.

What you need for proper data protection, the recommended distance between live data and backup data is 20 miles.

interesting. Where did you get that figure from? For mission critical data, I have always recommended the offsite data be 35 miles away for the primary copy, and cross-country for the secondary backup.

---------- Post added at 06:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:06 PM ----------

I think that if WW3 happens, you'll probably have bigger concerns than whether or not your data is safe...

Like whether or not you have power to run computers to access it.

solar power laptop charger and few battery packs will cover you for YEARS to come as long as your stuff didn't get hit with EMP and the sun isn't blotted out.

In that new era, functioning computing devices could be worth more than diamonds. Or as worthless as wet newspaper.

---------- Post added at 06:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:09 PM ----------

Why not go for terabyte drives? Or SSDs?

I would prefer two hard disks with the same data on them. And if they are for archival works, then you need to refresh them every few years or so. I wouldn't fully trust SSD's for archiving yet. There are too many bugs and issues with the controllers right now. I believe that over time, a magnetic hard disk will outlive an SSD anyways.

---------- Post added at 06:25 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:14 PM ----------

Sorry for that, my only remaining suggestion was burying backup in the woods... or giving it to the in-laws... Re: 20 miles - it won't help in Moscow in case of ... well ... WW3... www.multiupload.com may be a partial solution if you've got broadband and time to spare.

A variant on that; I have buried a metal box with foam and put 2 hard drives inside a non-gassing baggie. I put it 10 ft down and unless they are gonna dig up the field, it ain't going anywhere!

You can also dig a hole in your basement floor, put it there. All you need to do is fill it back up with dirt and concrete.