Computer backups: after recommendations for offsite

[NYCfixie]

...and who can provide support (and you can get one ay additional cost)...

You helped prove my point. This is beyond the average consumer. It is not that they are not capable, it is that they are not interested in the complexity of setup and maintenance. What might seem simple and easy to you because you have done it so many times, is not simple and easy to the average lay person.

I get the sense you only deal with other technologists (but I could be wrong).

I deal with other technologists, executive leadership, and end users in my work. From my many years of experience, end users (aka the average consumer), have no interest in this stuff. They just want their technology to work.

This has always been the folly of technology and the technologists who design and build it; technologists build in all the features (more than anybody could ever want) and ignore the user experience/interface. Build a system that has 1/10th the features but is usable by the average end user, and you have a winner.

[rec head]

What is the goal for the online backup? Security in case of fire, theft or loss of the device?

One well known example:

Coppola robbed of 15 years of computer work | World news | The Guardian

[j44ke]

One well known example:

Coppola robbed of 15 years of computer work | World news | The Guardian

Yes. I had my laptop stolen out of my house and along with it, all my student's grades that semester. The back up was on a hard drive sitting next to the computer, so that also got snatched. That was a mess that took a lot of work and embarrassment to rectify. So I learned that lesson years ago.

People have a lot of different reasons for archiving backups. Sometimes the reason determines the mode of backup.

My only experience with encryption is a friend who was going through some elaborate process of encryption for his computers and all his stored data and then bolloxed something that nearly locked him out of everything. Accidents happen.

Several people I know have been locked out of everything when 1Password did something stupid or didn't keep up with an OS update. Things came back to life but that was pretty sweaty for them for a while.

Strange how insecure security can seem. So you need more security to secure the security and backups to backup the backups.

I just try not to have anything worth stealing except for the computer itself.

My wife told me she's got it all under control and I don't have to figure her situation out. So that's great.

Edit: The cop who investigated the burglary told me the easiest precaution is putting valuable items in the second drawer. I guess studies revealed that burglars in their adrenalin overload state hit bedside table drawers (guns, drugs, watches) and top bureau drawers (drugs, watches, jewelry, other valuables) first and often leave lower drawers alone. Then they take everything off the flat surfaces that they think is valuable. He also said put your suitcases away in a closet. They are just a wheelbarrow for hauling off your stuff.

[sailor]

Easy option if you have an offsite office is to leave an external drive locked in a desk drawer. Still subject to hard rice reliability but low cost and low hassle.

[sk_tle]

Easy option if you have an offsite office is to leave an external drive locked in a desk drawer. Still subject to hard rice reliability but low cost and low hassle.

The cons about external disk based backups is that it is a semi-manual process. Sooner or latet out of lazyness or forgetfulness you end up not plugging it every day or not rotating them on a regular basis, even with reminders.

[Colinmclelland]

...I just try not to have anything worth stealing...

Man, you and your architects have had the mother of all misunderstandings😀

[sk_tle]

end users (aka the average consumer), have no interest in this stuff. They just want their technology to work.

Honestly they are better server by some apparently complex thing setup by a support team as part of the plan than a supposedly user friendly one totally botched by their nephew that they won't understand anyway *. Hence my recommendation for rsync.net.

* most people really think an hard drive is the computer case and what they usually call the battery is that 110/220v to DC transformator in the middle of their power cable.

[Tristan]

Back to topic: What's wrong with Dropbox, Google Drive, or Microsoft's OneDrive? For the bulk of users where having a backup is a "nice to have" are these systems not secure enough? For your data to be exposed you'd be extremely unlucky - it would need to be either a wholesale error at the provider (like Dropbox kinda had a few years back) or it would need to be a credential issue which would be your fault as the user and would occur no matter what backup you use.

Additionally these systems are incredibly easy to use (ie: just install them), work on every device, allow access to your documents everywhere instantly, and are incredibly affordable if not free.

If you're talking about protecting documents where a state actor might want access then it's a completely different conversation, but that's an exceptional use case.

[j44ke]

Man, you and your architects have had the mother of all misunderstandings��

Yeah, well they'll have to unstick the house from the rocks underneath first.

[sk_tle]

Back to topic: What's wrong with Dropbox, Google Drive, or Microsoft's OneDrive? For the bulk of users where having a backup is a "nice to have" are these systems not secure enough? For your data to be exposed you'd be extremely unlucky - it would need to be either a wholesale error at the provider (like Dropbox kinda had a few years back) or it would need to be a credential issue which would be your fault as the user and would occur no matter what backup you use.

Additionally these systems are incredibly easy to use (ie: just install them), work on every device, allow access to your documents everywhere instantly, and are incredibly affordable if not free.

If you're talking about protecting documents where a state actor might want access then it's a completely different conversation, but that's an exceptional use case.

Well first, they are not backup storage, they are synchronization storage.

Remember that backups are made to save you in case of a technical problem, or theft, but also when you do a mistake or run some malicious software. Onedrive/googledrive/dropbox have implemented versionning and a trash so it is better than it used to but still, there is no separation between access to data and management of the versions so it is always possible to delete permanently data by mistake and a malicious software such as a ransomware could turnoff versionning when it starts encrypting your files.