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If you choose to upload .pem to cloud storage, make sure you secure (encrypt) your .pem file, since it allows total access to the boxes! You should also secure

If you choose to upload .pem to cloud storage, make sure you secure (encrypt) your .pem file, since it allows total access to the boxes! You should also secure remote access via the "security groups" firewall by only allowing known ip addresses (you can edit this via the aws console as needed). Since he mentioned the "The Command Line Crash Course" [1]. I might chime in with a couple into screencasts I've created. Crash Course on the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard @ http://sysadmincasts.com/episodes/12-crash-course-on-the-filesystem-hierarchy-standard http://sysadmincasts.com/episodes/12-crash-course-on-the-fil... Crash Course on Common Commands @ http://sysadmincasts.com/episodes/13-crash-course-on-common-commands http://sysadmincasts.com/episodes/13-crash-course-on-common-... Crash Course on Man Pages @ http://sysadmincasts.com/episodes/19-crash-course-on-man-pages http://sysadmincasts.com/episodes/19-crash-course-on-man-pag... [1] http://cli.learncodethehardway.org/book/ http://cli.learncodethehardway.org/book/

toomuchtodo 13y ago
I suggest using a TrueCrypt volume with your credentials, stored on Dropbox.
- MichaelBurge 13y ago
  I email myself my encryption passwords so that I - and any interested government agencies - can log in without me needing to remember them all the time.
  - toomuchtodo 13y ago
    Worry not, I'm sure the US government would just go straight to AWS. No need to get your private key from you. Edit: Please don't just downvote when I rebut sarcasm/snark with fact. Discuss!
    - cpucycling 13y ago
      AWS does not have your private key, that's how public key infrastructure works. ;)
      - toomuchtodo 13y ago
        Once you have physical access, no need for the private key. Unless you're encrypting all of your data, they'll just snapshot your VM to go through it later (or your EBS volume, depending on where the data is stored). And yes, you can write out whatever is in RAM just as easily. Did everyone forget that "cloud" means "someone else fully controls the hardware"?
        cpucycling 13y ago
        Right, but this has nothing to do with the practice of protecting your private key. That the most sophisticated attacker with the most resources may be able to tunnel into your data is no excuse for lax security.
        toomuchtodo 13y ago
        I was replying to this parent post: "I email myself my encryption passwords so that I - and any interested government agencies - can log in without me needing to remember them all the time." Yes, you should protect your private key. No, protecting it isn't going to stop a government agency. A VM is not Schroeder's cat: you can peak without there being any evidence. That was my point. Apologies if I wasn't straightforward in my explanation.
        derefr 13y ago
        It's actually kind of hard to remember sometimes that cloud-compute providers don't employ some sort of homeomorphically-encrypted VM containers. Even though they are completely impractical and have never even seen a proof-of-concept, the idea is so intuitive that I bet if you asked a random non-IT manager if Amazon could read memory or CPU registers on the instances his employees have running on EC2, he'd say no. "Because obviously," he'd pontificate, "nobody would be using cloud-computation otherwise."
jamescarl 13y ago
Cool thanks for the advice I'm still learning so this info is really appreciated.

toomuchtodo 13y ago

I suggest using a TrueCrypt volume with your credentials, stored on Dropbox.

MichaelBurge 13y ago
I email myself my encryption passwords so that I - and any interested government agencies - can log in without me needing to remember them all the time.
- toomuchtodo 13y ago
  Worry not, I'm sure the US government would just go straight to AWS. No need to get your private key from you. Edit: Please don't just downvote when I rebut sarcasm/snark with fact. Discuss!
  - cpucycling 13y ago
    AWS does not have your private key, that's how public key infrastructure works. ;)
    - toomuchtodo 13y ago
      Once you have physical access, no need for the private key. Unless you're encrypting all of your data, they'll just snapshot your VM to go through it later (or your EBS volume, depending on where the data is stored). And yes, you can write out whatever is in RAM just as easily. Did everyone forget that "cloud" means "someone else fully controls the hardware"?
      - cpucycling 13y ago
        Right, but this has nothing to do with the practice of protecting your private key. That the most sophisticated attacker with the most resources may be able to tunnel into your data is no excuse for lax security.
        toomuchtodo 13y ago
        I was replying to this parent post: "I email myself my encryption passwords so that I - and any interested government agencies - can log in without me needing to remember them all the time." Yes, you should protect your private key. No, protecting it isn't going to stop a government agency. A VM is not Schroeder's cat: you can peak without there being any evidence. That was my point. Apologies if I wasn't straightforward in my explanation.
      - derefr 13y ago
        It's actually kind of hard to remember sometimes that cloud-compute providers don't employ some sort of homeomorphically-encrypted VM containers. Even though they are completely impractical and have never even seen a proof-of-concept, the idea is so intuitive that I bet if you asked a random non-IT manager if Amazon could read memory or CPU registers on the instances his employees have running on EC2, he'd say no. "Because obviously," he'd pontificate, "nobody would be using cloud-computation otherwise."

jamescarl 13y ago

Cool thanks for the advice I'm still learning so this info is really appreciated.