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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."
It's like RAID for online storage.
Sounds great, but what happens when a massive worm outbreak occurs?
"For a long time, I have been looking for a way to securely store my files online without being tied to a single vendor â" whose survival my storage depends on."
And when the master server that knows where all those little pieces are goes down, you are still without your data.
Hmm... sounds good. I'll donate 2TB of space each from multiple computers at different locations and between all of them i'm bound to have two critical pieces of your files, then all i have to do is shut them all down! Muah haha haaaa!
And actually, what would happen if a major disaster shut down all the PC's in a major metropolitan area? Does the service provide enough redundancy that even if everyone in silicon valley went offline, my files would still be safe? I'd rather know where my data is.
Also, slashverteisment? The concept is interesting but the story doesn't bring up the more interesting issue of privacy, it seems like just an ad.
-Taylor
Worldwide Military budgets: $2100 billion. Worldwide Space Exploration budgets: $38 billion. Really, world? Really?
> I don't think I want to be liable for the data that someone puts on my PC
I don't want random people's data on my disk. Period.
I was a beta tester for Wuala and the lack of access control to my donated disk space was the biggest issue. I talked to their CTO and suggested to have an option of donating the space to specific peers only, which should've not been hard to do given they have the social grouping support in place already. He didn't see an issue with wildcarded access though, so they were not planning (nor in fact did) anything about it.
3.243F6A8885A308D313
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!
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.
You people do realize we need to start with the toaster if we really want to do something about the kiddy porn problem. After all, studies have shown that many child pornographers start their day with a piece of toast for breakfast. Why should corporations be providing child pornographers with equipment that helps them exploit children in this manner?!
Simple, have a RAIH (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Houses) so you can just mirror your houses, so that if one happens to burn down then you'll have a backup copy.
I'm not sure how well a RAIH5 solution would work though but I'm sure there are plenty of people working on that though.
When I have a kid, I want to put him in one of those strollers for twins and then run around the mall looking frantic.