Re: [PLUG] Physically Secure Backup Disk

[Rich Freeman via plug <plug@lists.phillylinux.org>]

On Thu, May 18, 2023 at 3:24 AM Steve Litt via plug
<plug@lists.phillylinux.org> wrote:
>
> >
> >While true, this isn't much of an argument against cloud storage. The
> >other offsite storage locations proposed ITT include:
> >
> >- offline HDD in safe deposit box
>
> Encrypt it and rotate your disks in and out of the safe deposit vault.
>
> >- NAS or offline HDD at friend's/relative's house
>
> Encrypt it and check that the friend received it.
>

So, the problem with both of these is delay.  I run daily incremental
backups and I know the data is offsite and safe every day.  If
something goes wrong I get an alert and know immediately that I have a
problem.

If I were rotating backups stored at somebody else's house, then my
incremental backups aren't going to be offsite the moment they're
made.  They're going to sit in my own house vulnerable to the same
fire that destroys the original data, and they'll probably sit there
for a solid week.  Any "check that my friend received it" steps are
manual and a regular hassle for both parties.  Odds are that most
people aren't going to do either with any rigor, while the cloud
backup is completely automated.

>
> Internet companies regularly go out of business, get breached, get sold
> to entities that don't care about the customer. I've never had any bank
> lose any of my safe deposit stuff or deny me access. The levels of risk
> are very different. As far as data integrity, that should be checked by
> you with md5 files or whatever upon initial backup.

Amazon Glacier has never reported a data loss that I'm aware of.  If
you're storing your data at some small internet company then risk of
loss would of course be much higher, and I'd probably store your data
with more than one.  The long-term cloud storage options tend to be
designed to prioritize security over accessibility, so loss is
probably very unlikely.

However, consider the failure modes here.  We're talking about
BACKUPS.  If Amazon were to lose all my backups tomorrow I'd just make
new backups and store them someplace else.  Amazon losing my data is
only a problem if they do it around the same time that my house burns
to the ground, which is very unlikely.

--
Rich
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