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secure cloud storage
http://www.x404.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=27960		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  cloaked_wolf [ Mon Feb 25, 2019 1:47 pm ]
Post subject:  secure cloud storage
I'm fed up with having to find important documents, often whilst I'm at work. Currently, I have to do a pensions form which asks for all sorts of questions for things I've no idea about. I'd need my P60 at least and I'm going to struggle to find it at home because everything's packed away (ie dumped into boxes) whilst I redecorate.

I've contemplated with the idea of scanning in everything as PDF documents and then uploading it somewhere. I have all my payslips since I started working as a junior doc in 2007, as well as all P60s, somewhere in the house. I'd probably also want to upload ID documents like photocopies of driving license, passport etc. Stuff that I wouldn't want floating around on Google's servers or somewhere in China.

Any suggestions on how best to do it?

I'd prefer to be able to access information via smartphone if I'm out and about, or from desktop (at work) or laptop (at home).
Author:  big_D [ Mon Feb 25, 2019 2:31 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: secure cloud storage
OneDrive / Office 365 would be my first choice. Slap on 2nd factor authentication. Dropbox would be another alternative, but I haven't used it in years, so I don't know how secure it is.

OneDrive / Office 365 works with Windows or macOS (at home directly connect it to the OS and it appears as a secondary drive). At work I'd use it in a browser, you can search your documents and open them using the web apps (no problems with installing 3rd party software or mixing private and business data or having a method for exfiltrating medical data to the web - you could still manually upload work files, but they would have to ban Internet usage completely to avoid exfiltration through the web browser). On mobile (Android and iOS) there is a full set of Microsoft OneDrive and Office apps - you need an Office 365 subscription for the mobile apps to access OneDrive, I believe.

Google's GDrive works similarly.

Both are encrypted at rest - meaning the data stored on their servers is allegedly encrypted. Both allow 2FA - and that is the first thing I would set up. Both have a free volume of around 5GB, Office 365 gives you 1TB of storage. Office 365 Personal is around 40 - 50UKP, Office 365 Home is around 90UKP (I bought my Home from Amazon for around 55UKP, so look around for good discounts).

The benefits of Office 365 Home is that you can share it with up to 5 family members, each can install the full Office suite on 6 PCs and 6 smartphones and each gets 1TB of space. You also get 1 hour of Skype Out credits. Personal is cheaper, but you can only have 1 user, not 5 family members. I have Home for my family, with 2 daughters and a wife, it works out fairly economical.

Or you can go old-school and set up an S3 storage space and use your own encryption keys, but you'll need to understand what you are doing and how encryption works.

There are other options, but I'd go with Microsoft OneDrive/Office 365 personally, GDrive is probably as good, as long as you can live with Google "lookign after" your data. Dropbox and Box are other alternatives that are purles storage. All of them will keep your data safe and all will let you share files. All start off free, but require a subscription for more storage or advanced features.

At the end of the day, putting the data on the Internet is always a risk, but I trust Microsoft with my data - but I have 2FA switched on (Microsoft Authenticator), which requests verification over a mobile app every time I log onto the service. A big of a faff, but I'd rather that than have somebody being able to easily get into my account. Google has a similar system and also supports hardware tokens for logging on (only with Chrome, other browsers aren't supported).

Edit: For scanning, you can use Microsoft Office Lens app on Android or iOS for quickly scanning paper documents into OneDrive.
Author:  l3v1ck [ Mon Feb 25, 2019 4:13 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: secure cloud storage
One drive seems to work quite well. We've started using it (unofficially) at work for backing up our files.
It worked well when we switched laptops last month.
Author:  cloaked_wolf [ Mon Feb 25, 2019 4:56 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: secure cloud storage
big_D wrote:
OneDrive / Office 365 would be my first choice. Slap on 2nd factor authentication. Dropbox would be another alternative, but I haven't used it in years, so I don't know how secure it is.

Edit: For scanning, you can use Microsoft Office Lens app on Android or iOS for quickly scanning paper documents into OneDrive.


l3v1ck wrote:
One drive seems to work quite well. We've started using it (unofficially) at work for backing up our files.
It worked well when we switched laptops last month.


Thanks. I normally use google drive for a lot of stuff but it's not got personal identifiable information.
I'll look into onedrive and 2FA.

Scanning-wise, I was going to use my Canon multifunction printer thing which has a flatbed scanner built into it.
Author:  didgeman [ Mon Feb 25, 2019 5:09 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: secure cloud storage
The only way to really ensure total privacy of the documents is to host them yourself. You then know exactly where the documents are stored.
Synology (and many other nas manufacturers) will provide apps to allow you to access the stored content remotely.
Author:  big_D [ Tue Feb 26, 2019 5:13 am ]
Post subject:  Re: secure cloud storage
didgeman wrote:
The only way to really ensure total privacy of the documents is to host them yourself. You then know exactly where the documents are stored.
Synology (and many other nas manufacturers) will provide apps to allow you to access the stored content remotely.


Yes, but you still have to understand IT security and properly shut it down to third party access, especially if you are opening it up for Internet access.

Setting up easy access to the data and setting up secure access are two different kettles of fish, as QNAP and Synology have found out to their chagrin over the years.

Don't get me wrong, I have a QNAP NAS at home, but I don't put it on the Internet. I mirror the data from that onto a service designed to live on the Internet.
Author:  didgeman [ Tue Feb 26, 2019 9:54 am ]
Post subject:  Re: secure cloud storage
Synology publish fairly straightforward and comprehensive guides to adding extra security.
https://originwww.synology.com/en-us/kn ... nology_NAS
This includes 2 step authentication and ip lockout.
Its been my experience that the patching of packages is very quick these days and I'm not sure there have been any major security breaches in quite a few years (2014 synolocker??)
I'm sure its not foolproof - no system is - but it does fulfil the OPs request of not storing data on unknown servers in unknown locations unlike most cloud services.
Author:  big_D [ Tue Feb 26, 2019 10:38 am ]
Post subject:  Re: secure cloud storage
I agree, it fulfills his needs - although it is an expensive way of doing it, if he doesn't already have a NAS.

But even with the guide, you really should know what you are doing to be able to test that you have correctly implemented it.
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