Would you store sensitive data on Google Drive?

mchale

that wrote: »

a cheque is a one off payment and the banks should check the signature anyway. cards are multi payments.

All my standing orders, Amazon and ebay are remote from home card. Everything I spec food wise, travel card, pub is cash, and I do not even know my pin number - use my passport at the bank for id verification

The point being made was a cheque has yr s/c & acc num on it, so therefore available to anyone handling it.

JustAnotherSaver

Tom99 wrote: »

I use VeraCrypt on both laptop and the memory stick with its weekly back-up on.

Its very easy to use and does not delay you at all in opening/closing files.

Basically if anyone got hold of my laptop or my memory stick all the would find on either even if they searched the entire hard drive would be one file called say 'Tom's Files' or whatever I have chosen to call it. The will be able to see that the one file is 100GB so a pretty large file. That is all they will see and nobody could crack what's in that file unless they knew the password it is set up as.

When I boot up or insert the memory stick I take about 5 sec to enter the correct password. My laptop file is them 'mounted' as Drive Z and my memory stick is 'mounted' as Drive Y.

From then on Drive Z and Y operate exactly as if they were real Drives, I can see all of the folders and files I have saved. I also keep my Firefox and Thunderbird profile in these encrypted drives so that no one can look at my browsing history, saved password or any email information.

When I shut down the laptop or remove the memory stick the Z/Y drive is automatically dismounted and everything in the 100GB file is encrypted.

Sounds appealing.


Question here for you - do they need Veracrypt installed on their machine or just the password for the file?


My PC is passworded anyway. So assuming i'm now dead or in a coma or something the family now need to simplify their banking.


They access the shared Google Drive / Dropbox / OneDrive folder or the USB stick i've left behind at both my house & theirs.


But then despite me telling them it's encrypted with VeraCrypt, they've forgotten because it's been years since i told them and they can't find the paper they wrote the info down on BUT between 4 of them 1 of them DOES remember the password.


Now they have a Windows laptop and a Macbook. Can they just access the Google Drive and enter the password or would they need to install VeraCrypt?


Could they just insert the USB drive and access using the password or would they need to install VeraCrypt?










There's protecting and there's protecting. Obviously i want it well protected but then there's going above and beyond with 1000 layers of protection when the chances of someone coming for MY Google Drive are slim (touch wood). That's not to be dismissive because like i said - there needs to be an acceptable form of protection.

Tom99

You need VeraCrypt on your laptop.
I have also installed a portable copy of VeraCrypt on my memory stick, so that the memory stick can be used on any computer running MS Windows.
My password is 'Rt%$IqPXx' if ever you come across it left on a train.
It is also written down and kept with my will, because VeraCrypt claim that even the FBI cannot break their encryption formula.

I don't think it would be possible to put a large encrypted file on google drive. It is a very large file as it has to be large enough to hold all the files and folders you want in this encrypted file. Say you thought 15Gb was large enough. But that single file is going to have a modified date and time changed every time you make a change to even one of the thousands of individual files within that one 15GB file. So Google drive will be constantly trying to replace the 15Gb file with the latest copy maybe many times a day.

You could however have two encrypted files on you laptop, a very small one just say 1,000KB which is more then enough to store quite a few spreadsheets containing all of your sensitive data. That way you avoid Google raiding your bank account, but if a fire say, destroyed your laptop and memory stick you will still have a full back-up on Google Drive to download onto you replacement laptop.

JustAnotherSaver

I appreciate your situation where your file is large. Mine will only be a spreadsheet and a word document though.

Someone has said databases may be better but i've also got to think of those who will be using it and what will be easier for them to work and understand. Plus myself for setting it up.


Over time i may add one or two further Excel or Word documents if an idea comes to mind where i think it'd benefit but i highly doubt i would have 10s nevermind 100s or 1000s of documents for this task.




So VeraCrypt needs to be installed on the Windows computer. That rules out my sisters Macbook then.
Is there any kind of encryption where they wouldn't need the program installed on their machine? Not necessarily VeraCrypt but something else perhaps?

Tom99

Read up about it here:

https://www.veracrypt.fr/en/Home.html

It should be possible to put a Mac OS X version of VeraCrypt on the memory stick as well as the MS Windows version so the memory stick could be inserted in a Mac or Windows PC neither if which already have VeraCrypt on the hard drive. Its not something I have tried, but as I said above, after the initial set up it is very easy and quick to use, all your files are encrypted but you don't have to enter a password every-time you access a file only once when you boot up.

SuperHan

I'd stick a simple password on it (mostly so the relevant family member only has access to their document) and then stick it on Google Drive.


I think people are going way OTT on this. There's very little damage that can be done by someone getting access to that information - especially on accounts you are monitoring that closely. I would make sure there is no other personal data attached to the document (eg names, birthdays, addresses), as in combination the information could become more useful to people with less than honest intentions.


I keep a flow chart of all my bank accounts and standing orders on iCloud without any additional encryption or passwords - because I'm the only one with the password to the account so no one else could access it from a nosey perspective anyway, and if someone hacked into it they're welcome to the information in there. It'd be an inconvenience, but that's outweighed by the actual convenience I have of accessing it quickly and easily on all my devices.

JustAnotherSaver

SuperHan wrote: »

I'd stick a simple password on it (mostly so the relevant family member only has access to their document) and then stick it on Google Drive.


I think people are going way OTT on this. There's very little damage that can be done by someone getting access to that information - especially on accounts you are monitoring that closely. I would make sure there is no other personal data attached to the document (eg names, birthdays, addresses), as in combination the information could become more useful to people with less than honest intentions.


I keep a flow chart of all my bank accounts and standing orders on iCloud without any additional encryption or passwords - because I'm the only one with the password to the account so no one else could access it from a nosey perspective anyway, and if someone hacked into it they're welcome to the information in there. It'd be an inconvenience, but that's outweighed by the actual convenience I have of accessing it quickly and easily on all my devices.

Literally the only info in there is sort codes, account numbers, description of accounts (e.g. Halifax Reward Current Account, HSBC Advance etc). Lists of all the direct debits and standing orders, who they're to and why. Only really actual amounts if the amounts are not variable.



Within the Excel file for example at the bottom are various sheet tabs - for my mother, brother, sister, me and the wife etc.


That's about it. I know some are going down the road of i should have a file for my mother and a file for my brother and another for my sister etc.
Each to their own but nobody is going to rob anyone here and we're not those types of people who when you ask what do you earn respond with what's it got to do with you where everything is so super secretive.

Without going too much in to detail the accounts are not really normal anyway so people actually NEED to know the whole shebang. I know curiosity will kill some people there but like i said, on that one that's as much as i'm saying, so it actually has to be worked like this.




Regards the encrypting i was also recommended gnupg ... Jesus Christ what a confusing thing that is.

Maybe ok if you read all the documentation but i prefer things to, well just work.

onomatopoeia99

Heedtheadvice wrote: »

Office passwords are very easy to crack.

The were trivial on old versions (pre 2007) using .doc and .xls, but newer versions using the .docx, / .xlsx file format the don't seem to be. Unless you're in the "still using XP because it works and doesn't need improvement" crowd you shouldn't be using an ancient version of Office.

Short passwords can be brute forced of course, but longer ones it will be more difficult.

JustAnotherSaver

onomatopoeia99 wrote: »

The were trivial on old versions (pre 2007) using .doc and .xls, but newer versions using the .docx, / .xlsx file format the don't seem to be. Unless you're in the "still using XP because it works and doesn't need improvement" crowd you shouldn't be using an ancient version of Office.

Short passwords can be brute forced of course, but longer ones it will be more difficult.

Yeah i read that about the older office.


I'm currently using MS Office 2010 on Windows 7 which provides the .xlsx extension you mention.




I do wonder if encryption is needed tbh. Obviously if it ever happened then you can look back and say it was, but the chances of someone hacking MY Google Drive account out of the 100000s of Google Drive accounts out there? For a single file that doesn't even contain usernames & passwords that is password protected itself anyway?
I appreciate the 'you never know' but it does make me wonder if encrypting is also overkill.

Tom99

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

I do wonder if encryption is needed tbh. Obviously if it ever happened then you can look back and say it was, but the chances of someone hacking MY Google Drive account out of the 100000s of Google Drive accounts out there? For a single file that doesn't even contain usernames & passwords that is password protected itself anyway?
I appreciate the 'you never know' but it does make me wonder if encrypting is also overkill.

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Yes it maybe overkill. However you are bound to have lots of data on you laptop which could build a very good picture about you if a dishonest person got hold of it.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]For example my laptop has my address, bank details, NI Number etc etc and numerous letters and other files which would give a criminal a very big head start in fraud using my name.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]That's why I have chosen to encrypt everything but also because it is very easy to do. Much easier than having each file password protected.
[/FONT]