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Secure Cloud Solutions - why I am still using Dropbox
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14-10-2015 12:11pm#1As the thread title suggests, since the closure of Wuala I have spent the past two weeks experimenting with other supposedly secure cloud storage solutions to keep my data backed up and in sync across my mobile devices.
Naturally this isn't difficult to do but it can be tricky to be sure that your data is safe.
My criteria I would hope are not too stringent for cloud storage:- Offers either a generous amount of basic free storage or allows you to increase storage anonymously i.e through referrals/Bitcoin payments.
- Has a native Linux app, ideally open source, which encrypts data on client side before uploading.
- Is reliable i.e is likely to be here in ten years' time.
- (Not essential but would be nice) Has a corresponding app for your mobile to let you upload files like photos and video that locks with a pass-code.
Owncloud
On the face of it, this would seem to be the most likely candidate for keeping your data safe. As the website states Owncloud software can be installed on the server of your choice and you can employ server side encryption for files you upload. Since you're in control of the server, your data stands a good chance of being safe.
The interface looks very slick and you can even add apps for calendar, photos and even e-mail support. There's also a mobile app which unlocks with a pass code and can upload your photos and videos to a folder on your server.
The spiel sounds wonderful but I had any amount of difficulty getting this set up on my VPS which is quad core with 8GB of RAM and based in Western Europe - the connection kept dropping out. Each time I tried to fiddle the MySQL and Apache server settings (which by the way would leave any ordinary user running in horror), it only solved the issue for a short time.
Thinking the issue may have to be with my home connection at the best of times, I tried this again on my Mac at work but had similar connection issues. Never had problems uploading files over FTP/SSH/HTTP but would very much like to hear from someone who has managed to get this work though.
On the plus side if you get it working on your server it won't cost a penny extra and your storage is only limited to the size of your server's HDD.
Mega
Mega promises a whopping 50GB of online storage and their website offers a very easy way to drag and drop files although there is a more conventional desktop client called MegaSync available.
In theory at least documents are encrypted end to end so there's no way for them to be retrieved by a third party but it's my understanding that the touted cryptography on the page hasn't been fully peer reviewed although in fairness their SDK is available online.
Mega was founded by Kim Dotcom who as you all know has been having some legal troubles and even he himself has said he doesn't trust it so I am also a little worried about the mileage in his website, particularly considering the whopping amount of free storage offered.
SpiderOak
Despite promising a rather pitiful 2GB of storage, this is often touted as a secure cloud storage solution which encrypts data client side with AES 256 - how do we know this? Well... SpiderOak told us so. Also they have promised to make the client fully open source - what I can say is that was their promise two years ago when I started using Wuala and we've heard nothing since. Also has a mobile app though I was never able to get it working on Android.
Since SpiderOak doesn't have a big name behind it and initial storage is very low, it doesn't rank highly on my list.
Copy
One of my favourites, and the one that seems closest to DropBox. I initially chose this as the Linux app is supposed to be put very well together and you get 15GB of free storage on sign up.
Although not touted as a secure cloud storage solution, I decided to drop some of my video files in here to see how it fared. Sadly the app seemed buggy and the connection seemed to go very slowly/drop out (I tested this at home and at work again both on Mac and Linux).
It's entirely possible Copy would do well with smaller files and the mobile app was a joy to use, uploading pics from my phone without any issue at all.
Dropbox
Something of a controversial choice I know after Edward Snowden specifically advised against using this application specifically!
That said the software itself is very easy to use, downloading the Dropbox installer on Linux will install the proprietary demon which syncs your files with the server.
I was uploading around 1.5GB of my personal documents, pictures and videos. The connection was fast and stable.
Naturally the Dropbox app does not encrypt data client side but I was able to resolve this by using the command line tool EncFs for my Linux machine and BoxCryptor Classic (which uses the same encryption method) on my phone.
TLDR : You can't trust cloud storage providers software to protect your data for you, encrypt it offline first.
N.B I don't really want to have a debate in this thread about the merits or not of cloud storage, I am aware it is possible to make offline backups. Suffice it to say I have been bitten once before by keeping all my drives in one place and am not going back!2
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I've got ownCloud set up on a server in Poland. It costs me 9 euros a month for 128GB.
Works flawlessly.
Clearly you have more skills and patience than I do syklops! What I find troubling is that before owncloud I never had any issue uploading via FTP... still perhaps I need to try a different VPS provider, see if we have more joy there!
It also would be good if OwnCloud's desktop client offered encryption rather than doing it server side but needs must I suppose. 0 -
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Further update :
Just installed Seafile on my VPS.
Data uploads without any issue but the community edition doesn't support SSL out of the box, nor can you upload entire folders. It's not clear to me how you would sync individual folders on there either. Sticking with Dropbox for now! 0 -
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Consider Tahoe-LAFS (and an old android client), get a bunch of friends together each set up a node in your houses and share the disk space.
Alternatively if it's more backup than shared storage between computers look towards Tarsnap, not free but cheap
Thanks bedlam, I think Tahoe-LAFS would be ideal for making sure you have redundancy of data, sadly their "drop upload" feature is still in its infancy so if you simply wanted to sync your home folder for instance with your nodes then it would ignore any sub folders.
Tarsnap looks very promising, I'll take a look! Is the client open source, do we know?
Update : I stand corrected with a certain amount of tweaking it is in fact possible to use the sync folders on local drives such as Dropbox as storage with Tahoe-LAFS. Clever! 0 -
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