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Canon's cloud platform has lost users' files and can't restore them

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161–170 of 419 posts

Re: Canon's cloud platform has lost users' files and can't restore them

#161
post #74

I take nightly images of my computer's primary drive and replicate them offsite, with alerting if it fails and automated scheduled backup restore testing. It blows my mind to think that some random schmuck like me has better backup procedures than these multibillion dollar global corporations. Companies that don't invest in their IT end up paying for it tenfold down the track.

How do you automatically test restores?

Not the parent, but my homebrew backup script first makes the backup and then attempts to restore a canary file. If that fails it raises the alarm.

It's not perfect. I can imagine a scenario where the canary is restorable, but some other important files aren't. However it certainly protects against cases where a bug in the backup software makes a completely unreadable snapshot (which has happened to me before).

Re: Canon's cloud platform has lost users' files and can't restore them

#162
post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In fact most computers today are made in "communist" China. No Most computers today are made in "Special Economic Zone" China that has exempted almost all communist economic policies in favor of Free market capitalism because even hard core authoritarian communists know that their economic model is a path to poverty for everyone including the leaders

Nevertheless, such a system is quite a long way from a true free-market approach. And I think it demonstrates that market based systems that aren't "free markets" can be quite effective, and indeed from a theoretical perspective it seems to me very likely that such approaches work better than a "remove regulation at all costs" approach. EDIT: there was initially a typo in this comment. I meant "aren't free markets",…

it is insane to me that anyone would point to china as a example of how the rest of the world should operate

If you do clearly you place no value on what most people call Basic Human Rights.

>> And I think it demonstrates that market based systems that are "free markets" can be quite effective,

I am not sure what you are trying to say here, everyone knows Free markets result in the best economic outcomes, that was my point. The argument I was countering was the Free markets are bad and socialism is good which history has proven wrong time and time again the only counter that socialist have is "those were not real socialism"

Any society more than a couple hundred people in size will fail miserably under a socialist economic model. Only Free markets provide for the best outcomes for the most people.

That is not to say there is no issue with capitalism in general, Crony Capitalism which is what you have with Heavily regulated markets like we see in the US is a real problem and is largely the cause of Wealth Disparity in capitalist systems,

I am further confused by your statement the Free Markets are better than "remove regulation at all costs" approach

Truly free markets have no regulation, so I am not sure what point you are driving at.

Re: Canon's cloud platform has lost users' files and can't restore them

#163
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Store customer data immutable and encrypted, with a unique AES encryption key per customer. Encrypt that AES key again with a single RSA key-pair and store the encrypted AES-key in a database. You can access your customer data, using the customer-specific AES key. You can access the customer-specific AES key using your private RSA key. When you need to delete the customer data under GDPR, you can delete the encrypted…

> Store customer data immutable and encrypted, with a unique AES encryption key per customer. Encrypt that AES key again with a single RSA key-pair and store the encrypted AES-key in a database. Now you have the worst of both worlds. You also now have 2 points of failure where data can get lost, because if either has a problem you lose data.

I can't think of a mechanism where you can lose the customer's database records but can still recover files associated with that customer ...

Re: Canon's cloud platform has lost users' files and can't restore them

#164
post #20

I take nightly images of my computer's primary drive and replicate them offsite, with alerting if it fails and automated scheduled backup restore testing. It blows my mind to think that some random schmuck like me has better backup procedures than these multibillion dollar global corporations. Companies that don't invest in their IT end up paying for it tenfold down the track.

On topic topic, can I get HN’s advice on my backup strategy? All important files on Synology Ds218+ NAS, which has 2x12TB helium HDDs in mirror. Daily HyperBackup to Google Drive. I test restoring files on a monthly basis. Email alerts on failure. Anything I can improve?

> Daily HyperBackup to Google Drive

Is that really backup or a sync? If you have a bitrot (or a ransomware attack encrypts it) in an important file on your disk, and you don't notice it for a week and that file gets sent to Google Drive, will you still be able to restore the original version?

Re: Canon's cloud platform has lost users' files and can't restore them

#165
post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A “calculated risk” doesn’t make it okay when the risk is all on the consumer losing their memories. This corporate view on business risk alone is unethical.

Limited resources means you can never realistically mitigate 100% of the risk. You just have to decide how much risk your company will accept. People still die in risky surgeries. But we do them despite the risk on the consumer is them being dead.

I'm not sure this is a great comparison.

> People still die in risky surgeries. But we do them despite the risk on the consumer is them being dead.

The risk of doing or not doing is death. I'm not sure this is the best analogy.

Re: Canon's cloud platform has lost users' files and can't restore them

#168
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or what? They could and they did.

Or they could like, not. I think there's a world where corporations aren't given a carte blanche pass on human decency. I believe that world is nicer and where possible I work to give it room to exist; I boycott Disney because I believe what they did to the copyright system is wrong. I don't use Google or Microsoft products because I don't think they treat users with respect. (Minus youtube which I use a mirror, and…

"Minus youtube which I use a mirror"

?

Re: Canon's cloud platform has lost users' files and can't restore them

#169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And there won't be at this rate. Besides, it is now a net negative for their users. 'The cloud is not a backup' should be a mantra that everybody that uses the cloud for their work and personal data be familiar with.

I use the Cloud to store all my work and it's my way of backup. I trust Google's capacity to save my files. But, this being said, you SHOULD have other ways of backing up your data, like another HDD, storing locally in your PC too. Being too careful is never enough.

One of the advantages of having another independent backup is that, if you need it, you not only have a backup somewhere other than a specific cloud provider but you also have a backup that's being made via a completely different mechanism.

But I know that, careful as I am, I still feel vulnerable if, for example, I lose my main data disk.

Re: Canon's cloud platform has lost users' files and can't restore them

#170
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On topic topic, can I get HN’s advice on my backup strategy? All important files on Synology Ds218+ NAS, which has 2x12TB helium HDDs in mirror. Daily HyperBackup to Google Drive. I test restoring files on a monthly basis. Email alerts on failure. Anything I can improve?

Google, as a company, is not reliable - I refuse to host anything critical on Google Drive (even G Suite) because there's zero recourse or accountability if a bug in Google's software or if Google arbitrarily decides to ban you for life from their services (e.g. due to misidentifying you from a dodgy YouTube user or repeated Google Play Store policy violations) then they will delete all of your personal and business…

I have bad experiences encrypting backup drives. If they corrupt a little the data might be gone. You also have the problem of keeping track of the key for years.
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