Community Forums

silvrhand · 07-31-2016, 08:29 PM

Was on the road when I saw this didn't have time to reply.

The easiest way is to use SEDs (self encrypting drives)

You want to use a SED for your personal PC and laptop.
You want to buy a small synology and put it on wifi in your RV.
You can use the synology to backup your data to the cloud with an encryption key, will auto retry if fails, you can use whatever cloud provider you want.

Self-encrypting drives: SED the best-kept secret in hard drive encryption security

DeWat · 08-01-2016, 06:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gavenger

Sorry to get a little technical here, but just for clarification...

Bitlocker utilizes the TPM chip embedded on the motherboard for the encryption process. You can use this, as you did, to encrypt any and all storage devices attached to the laptop. However, this only protects your HDDs if they are separated from the laptop, meaning someone cannot take your HDDs and then plug them into another system and obtain your data (easily). If they take everything, laptop, external drive and any thumb drives laying about, your hosed.

Windows stores all passwords in a SAM file. This file is not accessible from Explorer, however you can easily create boot media that will circumvent the username/password of the Windows Login. The SAM Cracker software will zero out any password for any local account and allow them to log into the system as if they were that user. Since your HDDs are encrypted to your laptop, and they are using your laptop to access the HDDs, they have access to all of the data that is encrypted.

Your best bet is to continue to use the thumb drives to store critical PII (Personally Identifiable Information) and pictures, and keep them with you and separate from the laptop. That way if your laptop is stolen, they don't get the information with it.

Cloud services wont be encrypted. They use giant server farms and utilize virtualization. To help with resource allocation, these virtual servers can move from one piece of hardware to another. This movement would not be possible if they used encryption.

This is not completely accurate. First, BitLocker is full volume encryption. It encrypts the entire hard drive to the point of NO ACCESS without the password. There are no known hacks to a BitLocker encrypted drive without the password or backup passkey. Even BitLocker's predecessor, Encrypted File System (EFS) is still very secure today. If one plugs a hard drive with EFS files in another computer and copies the encrypted files, they will have gained NOTHING. If one bypasses Windows security and zeros out the Admin password in the SAM file (think Linux Boot Disk), the files encrypted with EFS will remain encrypted since they were not decrypted prior to the password change. Both BitLocker and the older EFS are secure ways of securing personal information, the weak link in the chain is the strength of the password used.

rwbradley · 08-01-2016, 07:02 AM

Inanne done let anyone dissuade you. Backups are a good idea, there is a saying "1 copy of data equals none in the case of a failure, 2 equals one and 3 equals 2. Always have 3 copies with one offsite (even if offsite can only be your Tow Vehicle) and one using a different type of media". Also don't let anyone dissuade you from encrypting the backups. Encryption works and when worrying about theft (electronic or physical) a good rule of thumb is not to be the lowest hanging fruit, make sure there are other easier targets for criminals to go after. Both backups and encryption are an insurance policy, they may not cover every possible scenario, but they will cover a lot and you will really wish you had insurance when/if something goes wrong. If you want to read more I did a write up on backups while RVing on my blog
Blog

Dale & Mark Bruss · 08-01-2016, 07:11 AM

We store all data on a central PC we use like a server. That makes sharing easier.

The data drive on that server get mirrored copied every night to another drive. That is used for repairing bad deletions.

All critical files are sent to Carbonite. That is for disaster recover. We don't worry about thief of data but the possibility of a facility disaster (burnt RV) is much much of a concern and any backup in the RV will be lost in the fire. Only off-site backup (cloud) provides protection from disaster.

**pasdad1** · 08-01-2016, 09:04 AM

Another way to accomplish off site backups is to buy several portable USB hard drives or flash drives. Put valuable files on it once a month, or whenever, and then mail it to a family member you trust, or mail it to yourself at a mail forwarding service. After you have a least two off site, then recall one and recycle fresh data on it at the next interval.

Dale & Mark Bruss · 08-01-2016, 09:23 AM

The problem I have with mailing backups is that its is manual and prone to being forgotten. Also, there is a window of new data between the last mailed backup and the next.

So many RVers have really critical data on their PCs. Since keeping paper is more an issue in an RV, financial data and photos are hard to replace. Tht is why I am a proponent of cloud storage. It is usually automatic.

As for Internet bandwidth usage, there is usually a relationship between the amount of new data created and the other activities of the user. I.e. people who create more new data also have more Internet bandwidth resources.

**pasdad1** · 08-01-2016, 10:06 AM

Unless you are working remotely in your RV, many people do all banking/financial through free online bill pay websites, and most pictures are taken by smart phones which can be configured to automatically save copies to Apple's iCloud or Google's cloud storage, so in reality not much data needs another method of backup.

So if you really depend upon data for your work or hobby, back it up using many of the suggestions already given. For most folks it's not much of an issue.