Carlo, My personal take on security and Dropbox.
... I think Dropbox IS a secure place to store your information. The fact that it automates backup (while automatically encrypting your backup) means it is a lot more secure than other forms of backup. And automated backups of important data is really, really useful. 1. For very important data (such as username/password details for your online banking), you can store your passwords using 1Password, and sync via Dropbox. 1Password encrypts your data before it goes of your computer, so even if someone did get hold of your 1Password data file, if you've used a good password it is still going to be very secure - Dropbox could not unencrypt it even it they wanted to. They do say that even if they are asked to pass data over to law enforcement, they will remove their encryption, but they cannot remove the encryption on your 1Password file (and they say the don't try to remove any of your encryption anyway). This article explains more about 1Password encryption: http://help.agilebits.com/1Password3/cloud_storage_security.html 2. For most other scenarios, Dropbox still provides very secure data storage. All your data is encrypted by Dropbox (AES-256 bit encryption). So even if someone hacked Amazon S3 and was able to get your data files, with a good password, AES 256 is *very* hard to unencrypt (nobody can say impossible, but this standard is good enough for the US government and banks). The Dropbox privacy policy makes clear they can remove the Dropbox encryption in certain situations (see their Privacy Policy), but they make clear this is for rare events. Data is usually at a lot more risk on a Mac than on Dropbox. A Mac can be physically picked up and taken from your home or office, disks removed, logins circumvented - if your data is unencrypted, it isn't going to be hardif someone wants to get at your data. if it is stored unencrypted. If it is stored in encrypted form, them Dropbox makes it doubly secure. Nobody can guarantee 100% security once data is in electronic form. But with 1Password and/or Dropbox, I think you have very easy to use tools that give you good backup and very good security indeed. Glenn Nicholas On 12 April 2012 21:35, cm <cm200...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi Blitto, > > Ronni and Neil have answered the bulk of your questions so I will just tie > up a few loose ends. > > Firstly Dropbox is free or paid cloud storage service that allows > automatic syncing with multiple computers (Mac or Windows) and syncing with > multiple mobile devices such as iPhones and iPads. So yes it is completely > suited to the task you mentioned. It also allows the sharing of selected > files with other users -- the feature that you have been using to date. > > I was a bit reticent to use Dropbox for reasons I'll give but have > succumbed to using it because it provides features that are not yet part of > iCloud. My first reservation was that the documents are stored on a server > and are thus vulnerable to being stolen if the server is compromised, or > (less likely) if Dropbox changes its policy and decides to reap my private > data. The other reservation I had was that the default install on a Mac is > quite invasive and adds tentacles to Finder and runs a background sync > process. > > I mitigate the privacy issue by not putting critical data in Dropbox. So I > would avoid storing in Dropbox any data that could lead to identity theft > such as passwords or bank accounts. For my other concern it turns out that > one can reverse many of the OS changes done by the default Dropbox install. > > You can, as you guessed, leave your files where they currently are. For > any data directory that I wish to have Dropbox sync with its server I place > a symbolic link in the Dropbox directory linked back to my data directory. > This can be done in the Termnal as follows. > (Note: I have also moved my Dropbox directory to a more convenient > location using Dropbox preferences, but it is your choice if you wish to do > that.) > > If the directory you want to share is /Users/blitto/mydata and your > Dropbox folder is at /Users/blitto/Dropbox you could use the following > Terminal commands to create the symlink. > > $ cd /Users/blitto/Dropbox > $ ln -s /Users/blitto/mydata > > The second command, "ln" will do the link and the switch -s tells the link > command to make a symbolic or soft link rather than a hard link. Once you > have done this the folder "mydata" will be synced to the Dropbox server and > available for sharing. > > If you have any other questions please post back. > > Cheers, > Carlo > > > On 12/04/2012, at 9:37 , rb...@iinet.net.au wrote: > > > Hi WAMUGersTrying to get my head around Dropbox. > > I use it to share files with people or to send the school magazine to > > the printer etc.BUT i am thinking maybe i can use it to sync stuff > > between my macs.Particularly my School Macbook Pro running Snow > > Leopard and my personal MacBook Air running Lion.There are a couple of > > files i might like to use on both these computers eg Word and Excel > > files (like bank balances, password reminders, timelogs in excel, > > maybe articles i am writing etc)These days i try to remember to swap > > them back form the laptop with the newer version to the computer with > > the older version etc. > > So - does it seem I can use Dropbox to do this?BUT - does that mean > > they can no longer reside where they currently do eg MacHD, Users, > > Blitto, Documents, Rod Personal folder???Do i have to shift them > > to MacHD, Users, Blitto, Dropbox if i want them to sync > > between laptops?????So IF that is true I suppose I could create > > aliases for these documents back in the original places they used to > > live and point the alises at the Dropbox folder???? > > Please - Am I on the right track here??? > > Another question: if i load the dropbox ap on my iphone - will ALL the > > stuff somehow sync to the phone as well??? But there isnt enough > > room.Or does the phone ap just look for the stuff on the website??? > > Finally - is the Dropbox site secure enough to be putting my personal > > files on? > > Yes - have looked over the dropbox tutorials and help a bit this > > morning > > Many thanks > > blitto > > -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- > > Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> > > Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> > > Settings & Unsubscribe - < > http://lists.wamug.org.au/listinfo/wamug.org.au-wamug> > > -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- > Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> > Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> > Settings & Unsubscribe - < > http://lists.wamug.org.au/listinfo/wamug.org.au-wamug> > -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> Settings & Unsubscribe - <http://lists.wamug.org.au/listinfo/wamug.org.au-wamug>
