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Online Storage With a Twist
mssmss writes "For a long time, I have been looking for a way to securely store my files online without being tied to a single vendor — whose survival my storage depends on. It looks like Wuala has a way to do this, according to this story in the Economist. They use donated disk space of users to scatter your encrypted files over multiple computers."
I don't think I want to be liable for the data that someone puts on my PC should the encryption ever be broken.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Encrypted distributed donated storage sounds a lot like Freenet. :)
It's a pity, a truly distributed system could certainly be built, and it would look similar in many respects to this one. I suppose Wuala has no real incentive to build a system that doesn't need them, though.
He didn't ask if there was redundancy. He asked if there was "enough" redundancy. How many nodes going down does it take before the system/data is crippled?
yvan eht nioj
And when the master server that knows where all those little pieces are goes down, you are still without your data.
Thank you! What do we have for our winner?
When I started reading TFS I assumed it was going to be some kind of distributed free storage service, that simply stores a copy of each file on multiple free online storage sites. As far as I'm concerned, this instead rates last after single service with a good backup plan and backing it up yourself. /vertisement much?
And wouldn't kiddie pron collectors love this technology?
You could say the same about almost every technology. Full disk encryption, digital cameras, the entire internet itself, all this makes the life of a child pornographer that much easier. Focus on the good uses of a technology, and let law enforcement do its job if someone misuses it.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
I concur, and I further assert that backup storage may be one of those things that just doesn't fit into a distributed model nicely. Having several physical copies of the data is 1000 times safer than several online copies, or parts of copies, any or all of which could be wiped out by the same affliction even if in different physical locations by virtue of the network that connects them.
stuff |
Must be nice to have family members for whom "ssh account" isn't a foreign language.
"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." --H.L. Mencken
that sorta defeats the purpose of having a shared online storage network. if everyone wanted to have total control over the space they donate, then instead of having one large public pool of online storage to be shared by everyone, you'd just have a bunch of small fragmented storage spaces or a bunch of disconnected groups of 5-6 people sharing a few gigabytes of storage. if that's the case then you might as well just call up a few of your friends and ask each other to hold onto your files for you.
the point of Wuala is so that they let you store whatever you want on the space they donate, and you let others do the same. it seems like a fair trade to me. obviously, if you don't want to share your disk space with strangers, then this service isn't for you. just build a RAID array.
The only disk space I would be comfortable donating to this would be on a Truecrypted drive, so even if someone cracks their protection, it's secondarily protected by mine. If the cops seize my drive, they find nothing.
I piss off bigots.