I will be away from home for a while. Just a few days ago there was a break in in a house down the street from my place. My hard disks at home contain confidential research work. It is unlikely a thief would be able to make heads or tails of it but I simply can not bear the thought of it ending up in a third party. I also have quite a few CD/DVD backups -- about 1000+ discs, but I can't be bothered to go through all of them to find the ones which contain the most sensitive files, maybe 25 or so discs. I was thinking about bringing my 6 (internal) hard disks with me on my flight, but I am unsure whether X-rays or rough handling may corrupt the data. Will it? Would wrapping the hard disks in towels be OK in terms of shock protection? As for the CD/DVDs, does anyone know whether it is likely an opportunistic thief would steal a stack of them sitting in the corner? When thieves break into a house of an absent owner, do they clear out everything or just the expensive looking items? Lastly, should I strip all key files from a WWW-connected server I use for my numerical calculations? I am solely responsible for that computer's security (even signed a form saying I was) and it uses SuSE 9.2. I keep a constant watch on it and being unable to do so for a few weeks makes me jittery.
It has less to do with paranoia, than me signing multiple documents explicitly saying that I am liable if anything goes wrong. A safe-deposit box was the first thing I thought of, but the ones I've seen won't hold 6 HDDs and 1000+ discs (like I said, checking 1000+ discs for the files in question is too big a hassle).
Thanks, I think I'll go for this, and just take one hard disk with backups with me in case a thief steals my PC during the festive season. The 30 day trial looks good; by the time its over I will be back.
################################## Who else did you tell besides the everyone who reads usenet? donnie.
You need a larger safety deposit box, or two of them! What you can do, is back up all your data to several sets of CD disks, and then format the drives. In the mean time, there would be no problem to store the CD disks somewhere until you can get back and then restore the data back. I would look for a place to store the drives. Many businesses back up to outboard drives, and then store the backup drives in a safe place. -- JANA _____ It has less to do with paranoia, than me signing multiple documents explicitly saying that I am liable if anything goes wrong. A safe-deposit box was the first thing I thought of, but the ones I've seen won't hold 6 HDDs and 1000+ discs (like I said, checking 1000+ discs for the files in question is too big a hassle).
have you a loft ? a burglar in a hurry will not go up there, especially if the ladder is disabled and there's already a burglar alarm sounding. john
I agree with the previous post, full hard drive encryption should help your concerns the easy way, have a look at compusec, it's free and is a full working commercial version. They make the $$ if you get an e-key, etc, but if a lengthy password is good enough for you, it's free. Another one is drivecrypt, but you have to pay from the get go. I've flown several times with my laptop in hand, none of the checks will affect your hard drive. Regards
E4M (encryption fo rthe masses) is probably still around on the internet somewhere which doesn't time expire.
You trust everyone at you ISP do you, unless you're munging headers you're going through Pipex? I wonder how many of their employees have had an enhanced PNC check. More, I wonder how many of them would be willing to sell this information to anyone involded in industrial espionage. I think you should take all your equipment back to work and lock it up in your office, then ask your IT security consultant to secure it for you at your remote site.
A safe deposit box is a good solution, but it may not be convenient and, as you say, it might be subject to space limitations. Another possiblity... Look to the ancient Asian cultures for a reasonable solution. .. How did they keep their valuables safe during a time when their were no commercial bank vaults available. The answer is that they hid them, usually in secret compartments within their furniture or their dwelling. While this strategy may deter thiefs, it will not protect against fire, flood, tornados, etc. For that, you need a home safe, or more specifically a UL rated fire safe. Pack them in Tupperware to avoid water damage. Now if you have a well hidden fire safe on your premises, perhaps this is the best of both worlds. Beachcomber
################################## ######################################### While I wasn't able to track your address, I have tracked many others in various countries. So, don't think it's impossible. I hope you can trust your neighbors. donnie.
Well if we're going to be THAT ridiculously paranoid, we can't very well discount the burglars going to his office, nor intra-office espionage, or sabotage, or little green men watching from their space ship. There's a good reason a tin-foil hat is the time-tested solution- otherwise they'll know what you're thinking and always be one step ahead!
Well, in the end I think I'll settle on a Compusec-encrypted HDD and taking a backup CD/DVD with my critical files with me. I've got neighbours above and below me, both will be informed I'm gone and I will tell both to call the police immediately if anything goes wrong, so it should be OK.
