What Happens To Your Files When a Cloud Service Shuts Down?

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What Happens To Your Files When a Cloud Service Shuts Down?

Posted by Soulskill on Friday January 20, 2012 @06:07AM from the apocalypse-and-doom dept.

MrSeb writes "Megaupload's shutdown poses an interesting question: What happens to all the files that were stored on the servers? XDA-Developers, for example, has more than 200,000 links to Megaupload — and this morning, they're all broken, with very little hope of them returning. What happens if a similar service, like Dropbox, gets shut down — either through bankruptcy, or federal take-down? Will you be given a chance to download your files, or helped to migrate them to another similar service? What about data stored on enterprise services like Azure or AWS — are they more safe?" And if you're interested, the full indictment against Megaupload is now available.

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Evidence by Aryden · 2012-01-20 06:09 · Score: 5, Interesting

As a point, the government will be using all files hosted on those servers as evidence in the case. They will not likely, and are not required to, give access to those files.
1. Re:Evidence by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-20 06:14 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Reminds me of the old saw, "Neither your life nor your property are safe when the legislature is in session."
2. Re:Evidence by KhabaLox · 2012-01-20 06:21 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Seeing as Dotcom was arrested in NZ, you may want to fly to a less US-friendly locale. I hear Venezuela is lovely this time of year.
  
  --
  Ceci n'est pas un sig.
3. Re:Evidence by forkfail · 2012-01-20 06:45 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  That, in a word, is horseshit.
  The legitimate users of the service have lost real property without any intent to do wrong. The takedown was without warning. The folks who lost their legitimate data have had their fourth amendment rights absolutely trampled.
  And you think they should be grateful that all they lost was their data, and not their physical freedom?
  
  --
  Check your premises.
4. Re:Evidence by kiwimate · 2012-01-20 07:01 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  The legitimate users of the service have lost real property
  
  No they haven't. It has been argued time and time again on this very site that the idea of "intellectual property" is nonsense and that the loss of data does not deprive you of anything real. If it's a legitimate argument for people who download music and movies, then it's a legitimate argument in this case. Or else it's inaccurate in both cases. You can't have it both ways.
5. Re:Evidence by forkfail · 2012-01-20 07:03 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  A huge part of the whole cloud approach is that it is an approach to data storage that comes with all of the redundancy built in. The idea is that it's expensive to run your own redundant data stores, keep them secure, etc. So, one basically outsources it to the cloud.
  Now we're in a situation where the manner in which some subset of the users of a given cloud can bring the entire thing down for everyone, resulting in the loss and exposure of everyone's data.
  Let's consider for a minute AWS. There are hundreds (if not thousands) of companies that exist pretty much solely in AWS space. They rely upon the cloud for their existence. AWS is a lot more reputable than Megaupload. However, at the end of the day, the same problem potentially exists with storing things in the AWS cloud.
  And if this can happen to one company, it can happen to any, including the "more reputable" ones like AWS. Especially with the SOPA-esque laws and treaties being pushed.
  This will absolutely break the cloud model. It renders all the advantages of the cloud moot, and in fact, opens up a completely new security hole (that of unwarranted seizure and or destruction of data by government agencies, or perhaps even rival corporations with an accusation of illicit content). Disney thinks that MyLittleComic is storing their data in JoesCloud? Accuse JoesCloud of hosting illicit data, get the whole thing nuked.
  This results in loss of business (at least in the USA); it makes it harder for the smaller firms and startups to be viable; and it further entrenches those corporations that are big enough to pay the appropiate bribes^H^H^H^H^H^H lobbyist donations in Washington DC.
  Finally, I would never, ever argue against due diligence. I would, however, claim that for a number of organizations that cloud use IS due diligence. And I'd still maintain that a good number of folk's fourth amendment rights were just tossed into the crapper.
  
  --
  Check your premises.
6. Re:Evidence by racermd · 2012-01-20 07:10 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  The actual answer is (as always) to have backups of anything you feel is important. If the data is important enough, you make multiple backups to different kinds of media and store them in different places.
  And, with any backup solution, one must plan for contingencies. Now that MU is offline, and the other personal file uploading sites are in danger of the same scrutiny/takedown, maybe it's time to roll your own private cloud with friends and family as storage nodes. They host your files, you host theirs. Model it after a weird hybrid bittorrent/RAID setup. That whole Storage Spaces thing from Microsoft would be a good model if it can be scaled to the network layer. The loss of any node would not bring down the entire storage pool and would allow itself enough time to re-balance the load among the remaining nodes.
  Obviously, there are some logistics concerns with this method. However, a private cloud like this would certainly survive the antics of a jilted media conglomerate (or a cabal of them). And, as it would be a backup solution to data you are already keeping elsewhere (right?), it wouldn't be the only copy of the data in the event the cloud goes down.
  
  --
  My sources are unreliable, but their information is fascinating. -- Ashleigh Brilliant
7. Re:Evidence by quaero_notitia · 2012-01-20 07:12 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  No, pirates don't use RAR or ZIP. They use YARR, matey!
  
  --
  -- Wondering how long until the internet becomes fully corporatist, like television.
8. Re:Evidence by a_nonamiss · 2012-01-20 07:19 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  If I were to physically deprive an artist of his or her only copy of his or her intellectual property, then we'd be making an apt comparison. As it is, it seems like you're just trolling for the **AA. In the Megaupload case, I would guess that with the amount of data taken down, at least one person, probably thousands, have been deprived of their only copy of data, which is real property. If I download a copy of Michael Jackson's Thriller album from LimeWire, I'm not depriving anyone of anything.
  
  I'm not defending copyright infringement here, I'm just pointing out your terrible logic.
  
  --
  -Arthur
  Cave ne ante ullas catapultas ambules
9. Re:Evidence by sulimma · 2012-01-20 07:44 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  The EU currently is evaluating whether all extradictions to the US will be stopped because the bradley manning case shows that suspects in the US are not safe from torture. (Long periods of isolation are torture according to international standards)
10. Re:Evidence by Kevin+Stevens · 2012-01-20 08:31 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  I am surprised that NAS's haven't caught on very well. I have had one since 2007, and have been living in "the cloud" ever since. I can access all of my data over the internet, and it also serves as a nice little low power web server that can run gallery and various other apps. It can stream media, and I can even kick off a bit torrent movie download at work, and then watch it when I get home. All the other functions are really just gravy, as I originally bought this set up to replace a large old power hungry pc that was acting as a file server to supplement my roommate and I's meager laptop drives. I am protected both by RAID 1 and an external USB hard drive that I do a full backup to on a weekly basis. The only thing I am really missing is having a backup kept off-site, which I could do if I was willing to swap out disks, or pay for a service that would allow me to do an online backup.
  Its a little pricey (about $400 for disks + the NAS itself) and requires some knowledge to set up properly, but I have no real space limitations, upload/download limits, and I can add or disable features as I see fit. Oh and of course, mine runs linux on top of a low power arm CPU.
Is it an interesting question... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-20 06:10 · Score: 5, Insightful

...if the answer is "backup"?
1. Re:Is it an interesting question... by boundary · 2012-01-20 06:16 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  ...if the answer is "backup"?
  Everyone has been told time and again that backing up to the cloud is a great idea. A lot of businesses bought into that. The risks of doing just that have now been made abundantly clear. Personally I'm reaching for my DAT.
2. Re:Is it an interesting question... by winkydink · 2012-01-20 06:28 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Doesn't "backing up to the cloud" mean that you still have the original copy stored locally?
  
  --
  "I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
3. Re:Is it an interesting question... by GameboyRMH · 2012-01-20 06:46 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Cloud backup: The safety of an 8-member RAID0 array of SSDs combined with the speed of tape.
  
  --
  "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Not an issue for Dropbox by OnTheEdge · 2012-01-20 06:10 · Score: 5, Informative

Good question, but it's not really an issue for Dropbox as that service maintains full local copies on each of the computers I have on my account.
Consider them gone. by sethstorm · 2012-01-20 06:10 · Score: 5, Insightful

If you can afford to lose the data, it's fine to have it in the cloud.
If you can't, you are SOL if you don't have a backup - one that is not in the cloud.

--
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
Cloud was stupid from the start in the first place by unity100 · 2012-01-20 06:12 · Score: 5, Insightful

The foolishness that is millions of users trusting a single giant computing grid owned by a single private corporation was stupid in the first place.
it is everyone putting their eggs in the same giant basket
ranging from policy changes to mergers/takeovers/acquisitions to bankruptcies to government intervention - whatever you can imagine. its a single point of failure and your important stuff is gone.
moreover, these cloud stuff are utilized for making collaboration tools work. so if cloud is gone, there goes your entire communication in between your team, company, clients, workgroup, whatever.
its strategically stupid. run your own cloud if you want. dont put your stuff on another company's turf. its dangerous.

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Read radical news here
Question by itchythebear · 2012-01-20 06:13 · Score: 5, Insightful

Has Megaupload been found guilty of anything? If not, why has their site been shut down? If copyright laws apply to the internet, then why doesn't due process?

--
If what I just said sounded like a troll, it was probably just a failed attempt at humor.
1. Re:Question by Caerdwyn · 2012-01-20 06:23 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  For the same reason that some suspects are kept in jail pending their trial: it is considered highly likely by the judge presiding over the case that the criminal activity would continue, or evidence be destroyed. "Due process" includes that decision, and the prosecution and defendant both state their position before the judge makes that decision. That stage has passed.
  BTW, I read the complaint. The core of the accusations are twofold: first that the Megaupload folks willfully hosted infringing content (thus losing the safe harbor protections that shield other hosting services); they knew and did nothing. Second, that through other businesses and websites they controlled, the Megaupload folks deliberately solicited infringing content and directed it to Megaupload (hence the "conspiracy" charges, which mean something very specific and not necessarily the tinfoil hats and black helicopters so popular among bloggers who think they know the meaning of a word). If those complaints are true (and none of us here knows that or will decide that; we are not the jury, and we are not seeing the evidence), then yeah, they're gonna go to jail and be stripped of every penny they own. That's reality, regardless of whether Anonymous, Slashdot, or anyone else likes it or not.
  
  --
  Everybody gets what the majority deserves.
All their eggs in the same basket by forkfail · 2012-01-20 06:16 · Score: 5, Insightful

But once the SOPA-esque laws and treaties become The Way That Things Are (tm) - and unless things change drastically, they eventually will - and once the Great Consolidation has run its course - what choice will there be?

--
Check your premises.
1. Re:All their eggs in the same basket by fusiongyro · 2012-01-20 06:25 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  How is SOPA going to stop you from hosting your files yourself?
Isn't it obvious? by tlhIngan · 2012-01-20 06:16 · Score: 5, Informative

It goes away. Hope you had a backup.
If you're lucky, the cloud provider may provide you with a one-time access to your account, but isn't it far safer to assume that if your cloud provider goes down, you've lost everything you put in? Not just data, either - if you've prepaid your account, you probably lost all that stored value as well.
Cloud storage providers especially. What happens if your hard drive dies? You lose the data. What happens if your backup tapes fail - you've lost the backup. What happens if your dropbox/skydrive/etc. disappear? You've lost your files.
All those XDA Developer links? Gone. hope the original authors are still around to upload them elsewhere or that someone downloaded it and can upload it.
Cloud providers make us lazy - we think "it'll always be around and I can grab it later". Turns out later can disappear - perhaps temporary (e.g., your or their internet connection dies), or permanently. But it's really just the same as storing files locally - there's a chance the storage may fail.
Re:Files = Pokemon by GameboyRMH · 2012-01-20 06:55 · Score: 5, Funny

Lots of us do but few are willing to admit it ;-)

--
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel