Why I'm saying goodbye to Dropbox and hello to SpiderOak Hive

I've seen a lot of people recommend Lastpass lately, but couldn't the government force Lastpass to create a backdoor for them to get the passwords before they are encrypted?

I'd also worry about a catastrophic event of Lastpass losing those passwords somehow, and then remaining locked out of many websites.

And what about Bittorent Sync with an old PC as an alternative? They even have an iOS app now.

Re: Why I'm saying goodbye to Dropbox and hello to SpiderOak Hive

#7

Post by lreeves » Wed, Aug 28, 2013, 1:55 PM UTC

devx wrote: post #6

I've seen a lot of people recommend Lastpass lately, but couldn't the government force Lastpass to create a backdoor for them to get the passwords before they are encrypted? I'd also worry about a catastrophic event of Lastpass losing those passwords somehow, and then remaining locked out of many websites. And what about Bittorent Sync with an old PC as an alternative? They even have an iOS app now.

Yeah that's my concern too - any vendor can be compelled through secret courts to include backdoors in software.

Re: Why I'm saying goodbye to Dropbox and hello to SpiderOak Hive

#8

Post by xhrpost » Wed, Aug 28, 2013, 2:00 PM UTC

cpursley wrote: post #5

Chicago? Last time I checked, that city is within the jurisdiction of the United States and not immune to national security gag letters. No thanks. Swiss based Wuala.com is a much better solution.

Valid point. Conversely though (I'm probably over simplifying here) wouldn't this require some sort of secret instructions in the encryption software to send the user's key to HQ? Wouldn't said transmission be detectable by logging traffic from the encryption program? Granted many won't do that but it would only take one person sniffing packets on their machine to reveal it.

Re: Why I'm saying goodbye to Dropbox and hello to SpiderOak Hive

#9

Post by taway2012 » Wed, Aug 28, 2013, 2:04 PM UTC

SpiderOak user here.

Just remember to not use the Web UI: if you do so, your plaintext password is sent to the servers, because decryption happens on the servers. This is mentioned in their FAQ. Unless things have changed since the last time I checked.

Re: Why I'm saying goodbye to Dropbox and hello to SpiderOak Hive

#10

Post by nofo_cus » Wed, Aug 28, 2013, 2:10 PM UTC

devx wrote: post #6

I've seen a lot of people recommend Lastpass lately, but couldn't the government force Lastpass to create a backdoor for them to get the passwords before they are encrypted? I'd also worry about a catastrophic event of Lastpass losing those passwords somehow, and then remaining locked out of many websites. And what about Bittorent Sync with an old PC as an alternative? They even have an iOS app now.

I've had this worry as well, in regards to loosing passwords. I still believe writing everything down on a piece of paper can help. I have a little black journal that I carry with me everywhere that has all my passwords in it. Typing them in is the issue when they are longer strings, and mixed symbols.

Only issue is protecting that journal.. Hopefully I can eat the pages if things were to arise. Ha