6 ms·

I'm a bit unclear how you can use this in business, since it is effectively unencrypted. If you go through the trouble of building your own crypto and key mana

by rdl 13y ago

I'm a bit unclear how you can use this in business, since it is effectively unencrypted. If you go through the trouble of building your own crypto and key management into every mobile app with a "save to Dropbox" option, you might saw ell run your own storage infrastructure (or outsource it to s3). If you don't, you are storing confidential business data with a consumer file storage company and exposed to insider, compelled disclosure, third party attack, or implementation bugs.

eps 13y ago
People are lazy and ignorant. Just look at how many businesses default to Gmail without giving it any thought whatsoever.
- sliverstorm 13y ago
  Yes, but if your business model literally depends on people being lazy and ignorant, you may run into problems.
  - icebraining 13y ago
    Why, are we running out of lazy and ignorant people? I beg to differ, there are a lot of us.
    - deleted 13y ago
      [deleted]
- cLeEOGPw 13y ago
  I'm looking forward to changing from gmail to a more secure mail service, maybe you could recommend something that's not US based and, at least as of currently known, secure and possibly encrypted, similar to how lavabit was?
  - Ntrails 13y ago
    Given that, as I understand it, lavabit deleted all of it's user data when the government won (and it will always win) - I am not sure picking such a service is a solid business idea?
dmourati 13y ago
For encryption, check out SpiderOak. I used to work with the CEO and know a few of their engineers. The privacy use case is looking stronger and stronger. https://spideroak.com https://spideroak.com
- kijin 13y ago
  I've been a SpiderOak user for over 3 years. I like the "nearly zero knowledge" aspect of it, but the clunky, non-native, freezes-all-the-time user interface drives me crazy. Despite Dropbox's horrible privacy and security, I can't deny that it offers the smoothest file-storage and file-sharing experience that I've ever had.
  - rdl 13y ago
    I'm unwilling to trust a company to provide me with a binary that touches unencrypted data/keys AND also host all my data. It's just too easy to slip in a special backdoor on update (and failing to update = big security risk, too, and generally unworkable for general purpose products for features/OS reasons.) What I want is a trustworthy client, ideally written to an open published standard, which can either backend with a service (with ideally several providers), or with a self-hosted binary (or appliance).
  - vader1 13y ago
    Unfortunately I had the same experience when I evaluated it a couple of years ago. You should check Wuala: while still not perfect (the client is closed source and java) the user experience has been pretty much as smooth as Dropbox'.
    - kijin 13y ago
      Been there, done that. I liked Wuala even less because its UI is not a reliable indicator of what it is doing at any given moment. For example, the upload/download queues would often be empty, even when Wuala is clearly transferring files in the background. A folder would show a green check mark, indicating "fully synched", but it would have a subfolder that isn't quite finished. Inconsistencies like that made me give up on Wuala. If a program is going to be as slow as molasses, that's fine. Client-side encryption means that a lot of things that Dropbox does on their servers need to be done on my low-powered devices instead, so I can tolerate it to some extent. But at least I'd like to see exactly what's taking so long. </rant>
LogicX 13y ago
There are solutions like Safemonk - https://www.safemonk.com https://www.safemonk.com which layer Encryption on top of Dropbox and are exactly for these types of Enterprise customers.

by rdl 13y ago

eps 13y ago

People are lazy and ignorant. Just look at how many businesses default to Gmail without giving it any thought whatsoever.

sliverstorm 13y ago
Yes, but if your business model literally depends on people being lazy and ignorant, you may run into problems.
- icebraining 13y ago
  Why, are we running out of lazy and ignorant people? I beg to differ, there are a lot of us.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
cLeEOGPw 13y ago
I'm looking forward to changing from gmail to a more secure mail service, maybe you could recommend something that's not US based and, at least as of currently known, secure and possibly encrypted, similar to how lavabit was?
- Ntrails 13y ago
  Given that, as I understand it, lavabit deleted all of it's user data when the government won (and it will always win) - I am not sure picking such a service is a solid business idea?

dmourati 13y ago

For encryption, check out SpiderOak. I used to work with the CEO and know a few of their engineers. The privacy use case is looking stronger and stronger. https://spideroak.com https://spideroak.com

kijin 13y ago
I've been a SpiderOak user for over 3 years. I like the "nearly zero knowledge" aspect of it, but the clunky, non-native, freezes-all-the-time user interface drives me crazy. Despite Dropbox's horrible privacy and security, I can't deny that it offers the smoothest file-storage and file-sharing experience that I've ever had.
- rdl 13y ago
  I'm unwilling to trust a company to provide me with a binary that touches unencrypted data/keys AND also host all my data. It's just too easy to slip in a special backdoor on update (and failing to update = big security risk, too, and generally unworkable for general purpose products for features/OS reasons.) What I want is a trustworthy client, ideally written to an open published standard, which can either backend with a service (with ideally several providers), or with a self-hosted binary (or appliance).
- vader1 13y ago
  Unfortunately I had the same experience when I evaluated it a couple of years ago. You should check Wuala: while still not perfect (the client is closed source and java) the user experience has been pretty much as smooth as Dropbox'.
  - kijin 13y ago
    Been there, done that. I liked Wuala even less because its UI is not a reliable indicator of what it is doing at any given moment. For example, the upload/download queues would often be empty, even when Wuala is clearly transferring files in the background. A folder would show a green check mark, indicating "fully synched", but it would have a subfolder that isn't quite finished. Inconsistencies like that made me give up on Wuala. If a program is going to be as slow as molasses, that's fine. Client-side encryption means that a lot of things that Dropbox does on their servers need to be done on my low-powered devices instead, so I can tolerate it to some extent. But at least I'd like to see exactly what's taking so long. </rant>

LogicX 13y ago

There are solutions like Safemonk - https://www.safemonk.com https://www.safemonk.com which layer Encryption on top of Dropbox and are exactly for these types of Enterprise customers.