How Apple and Amazon Security Flaws Led to My Epic Hacking

[raider.adam]

How Apple and Amazon Security Flaws Led to My Epic Hacking | Gadget Lab | Wired.com

I highly recommend people to read this and if there is anything you take away from this story is that you should routinely backup your computers and devices.

External hard drives are cheap. There is no excuse.

[BarryG]

Even easier and cheaper than external hard drive -- a service like Google Drive will autmatocally backup all your important files in the cloud for just a couple bucks a month.

[seand]

The whole point of the story was how lax security precautions at Amazon and Apple and to a lesser extent Google let hackers get access to everything this guy had. Not sure simply moving files to the cloud (as opposed to a call to rethink security in the era of the cloud) is the takeaway of the story.

[raider.adam]

Even easier and cheaper than external hard drive -- a service like Google Drive will autmatocally backup all your important files in the cloud for just a couple bucks a month.

Well, except the basis of the article was the security issues of cloud services.

[BarryG]

Whoops should have RTFA. Still -- cloud services are so much easier to use that I think this is better than an external hard drive, especially if it's a laptop computer. Using two cloud backup services should be sufficient.

[raider.adam]

I am still not a fan of using cloud storage for full backups (it is better than nothing). Of course, I am backing up more than word docs and photos and like to have multiple archived backup sets.

Plus, the legalese is important. Google can be subpoenaed to supply your documents and they will comply.

[mixiboi]

They should ask the banks about clouding security...Banks been using clouds for years....

[Tartan69]

Depending on how much you want to spend, there are a couple ways to go with backups:

• Back up nothing
• Back up only important documents
• Back up docs, MP3s, movies, etc
• Back up entire hard drive

If you go the "only documents" route, there are a zillion ways to do this since your entire set of important docs is probably fairly small:

• email them to yourself
• thumb drive
• external hard drive
• store them only on the cloud (Google Docs)
• store them locally and have it sync to the cloud (free versions of Dropbox, Google Drive, Box.net)

If you go more than that (including the whole hard drive route), there are some other options:

• local backup to external hard drive (using some kind of utility like Norton Ghost or even just a manual copy)
• sync to the cloud using paid versions of cloud sync services (referenced above, and there's a ton more that offer this)
• go hardcore and contract a vendor that specializes in disaster recovery

My suggestion -- at bare minimum, use a free cloud sync service for your important documents. A better suggestion is to do that AND have a utility scheduled to regularly back these up to a local external hard drive. As Adam said, they aren't expensive and most come with all the utilities you need. They aren't hard to use.

One other suggestion is to RAID 1 your computer's hard drive so that your data is saved to 2 separate drives. This way if one drive fails, you don't have to restore a backup and you don't lose any data. Of course this requires buying an additional drive and doing the setup...

[Jayfar]

A cloud service might be a good idea as a form of off-site backup in addition to local backups. That way if your house burns to the ground, you still have a backup. Or you could keep your local backups in a fireproof safe, which, depending on its rating, may or may not protect your local backups from an intense fire.

[Tartan69]

A cloud service might be a good idea as a form of off-site backup in addition to local backups. That way if your house burns to the ground, you still have a backup. Or you could keep your local backups in a fireproof safe, which, depending on its rating, may or may not protect your local backups from an intense fire.

Agreed. The chances of a person's house burning down are probably greater than the chances their individual account is hacked in the way described in the article.

[raider.adam]

Agreed. The chances of a person's house burning down are probably greater than the chances their individual account is hacked in the way described in the article.

Million and a half house fires a year. About 10 million cases of identity theft a year. Sure the way that was hacked was a bit of work, but there are other ways accounts get compromised.

[Tartan69]

Million and a half house fires a year. About 10 million cases of identity theft a year. Sure the way that was hacked was a bit of work, but there are other ways accounts get compromised.

Valid point, although I was thinking more along the lines of the account breach as described in the article rather than just identity theft. But it is good to see some numbers to think about scale. Scary stuff.

FWIW, here's some additional advice from Lifehacker: Strong Passwords Aren't Enough: How to to Ensure the Apple and Amazon Exploit Never Happens to You

[OffenseTaken]

I would buy an external HD and back everything up on it, but then you know someone's gonna break into my house and steal it. The day before I get hacked.

Also, anyone notice how much that guy looks like Garrison Keillor?

[raider.adam]

Valid point, although I was thinking more along the lines of the account breach as described in the article rather than just identity theft. But it is good to see some numbers to think about scale. Scary stuff.

FWIW, here's some additional advice from Lifehacker: Strong Passwords Aren't Enough: How to to Ensure the Apple and Amazon Exploit Never Happens to You

Correct. The story was an involved multi account hack. More likely ways are viruses and phishing sites.