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This is great; however, folks can still securely store data on cloud services. They just need to take a Trust No one (TNO) approach and encrypt their data to d
by weej 13y ago
This is great; however, folks can still securely store data on cloud services. They just need to take a Trust No one (TNO) approach and encrypt their data to disk.
For example you can use TrueCrypt and create/mount a drive volume that is fully encrypted while synced across a file share storage/sync service like DropBox.
The only downside is that you have to install the TrueCrypt application on your client device, which does limit is platform offering (currently, no mobile).
http://www.truecrypt.org/ http://www.truecrypt.org/
- illicium 13y agoAnother downside of using Truecrypt is that when you make a change in your volume, the whole volume file gets reuploaded to your storage/sync service. A better solution is to use .sparsebundles (Mac only) or something like BoxCryptor/encfs that encrypts files in the volume individually
- eknkc 13y agoIs it? I believe dropbox handles files in up to 8MB chunks. If a chunk is not modified, it's not re-uploaded. I use encfs though, good suggestion.
- weej 13y agoGood call. I'm not sure of the Dropbox client, but API is variable all the way up to 150MB. Typical client is "4MB chunk" https://www.dropbox.com/developers/core/api#chunked-upload https://www.dropbox.com/developers/core/api#chunked-upload
- weej 13y agoGood point, I only use TrueCrypt for sensitive documents (small in file size), and don't worry/notice the entire volume sync. BoxCryptor does look like a great alternative; however, it's not open source and does come w/ a price (literally and figuratively - file names exposed if using free version or drop $50 USD). Have you used BoxCryptor? Curious what your experience has been. I'll give it a try.
- MartinMond 13y agoBoxCryptor is just a commercial implementation of encfs [1] with a nice GUI (and _a lot_ less hassle to install on Windows) [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encfs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encfs
- babas 13y agoDropbox does not upload your whole Truecrypt volume every time you change it. It just uploads the blocks that are changed. It's pretty efficient. The real problem with using a Truecrypt volume on Dropbox is concurrent changes to the same volume. It happens if you mount the Truecrypt volume on 2 machines at the same time. It will mess up badly.
- claudius 13y agogit-annex also supports client-side encryption and is in the process of getting sensible syncing. I am a bit surprised it wasn’t mentioned here yet.