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Online Storage With a Twist

Posted by timothy on from the wiseacres-will-volunteer-to-store-porn dept.

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."

9 of 268 comments (clear)

  1. No thanks... by KGIII · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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."
    1. Re:No thanks... by Hyppy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Or, what if you're in the U.K.?

      Police: "We want your encryption keys"
      Joe: "I don't have them, they're not my files!"
      Police: "Think it over in solitary confinement."

    2. Re:No thanks... by denmarkw00t · · Score: 5, Insightful

      In a distributed system of file chunks, you would never have access to what those chunks make up unless it is YOUR data, so I think its actually a lot safer than you think. In a system like this, all you're storing for other people is essentially random chunks - it would be very difficult to prove in court that you in fact were aware of the content this data belonged to and that you willingly supported a criminal.

  2. Re:Single point of failure by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  3. Re:Single point of failure by cizoozic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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?

  4. Re:Not me... by Hatta · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

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    Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
  5. Re:Nice idea by 192939495969798999 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

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    stuff |
  6. Re:Online Storage scares me by emag · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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
  7. Donate data space on a Truecrypted drive. by EWAdams · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.