Using ISP webspace to store Encrypted sensitive data. Comments ??

[Paul]

Hello everyone,

Can I get your opinions on this ? I am a home user with Vista. I have some
sensitive files (electronic bank statements, paycheck stubs, ...) that I
would like to store securely.

My Internet Service Provider is Comcast and they give 25MB of online storage
space to use for web or to store files. I was thinking of using that space
to store these sensitive files, encrypted of course.

If this is an okay idea, what encryption program should I use ? I am
willing to pay some money (free things are usually garbage). I also heard
that encrypted files can be embedded in .doc or .mp3 files so that they don't
look like encrypted files at the first look. Is this true ? If so, it would
be icing on the cake.

Thank you for your time and information,

Paul

 

[Malke]

Re: Using ISP webspace to store Encrypted sensitive data. Comments??

Paul wrote:
> Hello everyone,
>
> Can I get your opinions on this ? I am a home user with Vista. I have some
> sensitive files (electronic bank statements, paycheck stubs, ...) that I
> would like to store securely.
>
> My Internet Service Provider is Comcast and they give 25MB of online storage
> space to use for web or to store files. I was thinking of using that space
> to store these sensitive files, encrypted of course.
>
> If this is an okay idea, what encryption program should I use ? I am
> willing to pay some money (free things are usually garbage). I also heard
> that encrypted files can be embedded in .doc or .mp3 files so that they don't
> look like encrypted files at the first look. Is this true ? If so, it would
> be icing on the cake.

Hi, Paul - I wouldn't. I think you'd be better off using a company that
specializes in off-site backup like Mozy or Carbonite.


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

 

[bealoid]

=?Utf-8?B?UGF1bA==?= <Paul@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
news:C3B35229-8A46-4C84-B135-D9A6E16B6F11@microsoft.com:

> My Internet Service Provider is Comcast and they give 25MB of online
> storage space to use for web or to store files. I was thinking of
> using that space to store these sensitive files, encrypted of course.
>
> If this is an okay idea, what encryption program should I use ?

Gnu GPG with a long, sensible, passphrase. Something like a diceware
phrase would be could.

> I am
> willing to pay some money (free things are usually garbage).

Many pay-for crypto softs are garbage.

> I also
> heard that encrypted files can be embedded in .doc or .mp3 files so
> that they don't look like encrypted files at the first look. Is this
> true ?

Google for "Steganography". There's not much point to it. Either you
trust your encryption, in which case you don't need steganography[1], or
you don't trust your encryption, in which case stego won't help.

You could just call the encrypted file something else?