[Triumf-linux-managers] Re: TWNHTU: T-Mobile sidekick data loss; Jungledisk

[Andrew Daviel]

On Sun, 11 Oct 2009, Konstantin Olchanski wrote:

>
>> From the "This Will Never Happen To Us" departement.
>
> Slashdot are discussing the latest data loss incident at
> http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/10/11/0335210/Server-Failure-Destroys-Sidekick-Users-Backup-Data

I see they eventually got it back, but lost a few customers. As far as I 
can see, customer's data was actually safe on the phones, and it was 
T-Mobile's syncing service that lost the data. AFAIK Rogers doesn't even have a 
syncing service for my oldish phone (I have some copies via gammu and 
bluetooth or USB cable) so I'm worse off anyway.

One comment caught my eye on slashdot, about Jungledisk. I thought I'd 
give it a try. Interesting service. For $2/month you get as much storage 
as you want in the cloud, with an encrypted connection. They provide a 
client that sets up a mount point using FUSE, so you can use it 
as if it was a local disk. The data goes to the cloud over HTTP (port 80 
or 443, you pick). Actually there's a big local cache, too, which speeds 
things up if you are actually working in the mounted directory.

The actual client is closed-source, but they provide some code they say 
explains how the client encryption works. It won't compile easily for me 
- looks like C#, no makefile or autoconf.

There is also an ability to view your data via a Web browser. Of course, 
if you enter your encryption key online, theoretically they could copy 
it. Otherwise, as encryption is in the client, it doesn't matter whether 
the transport is open or where the data ends up (but see
http://xkcd.com/538/ .. maybe it would work over Tor..)

I guess one could make a bootable disk or USB stick with your desktop in 
the cloud - doubtless someone has already done it.

-- 
Andrew Daviel, TRIUMF, Canada
Tel. +1 (604) 222-7376  (Pacific Time)
Network Security Manager