Storage Solutions Protection of data from being hacked (Airgapping!?)

Willer

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due to ever growing cyber crimes, How to protect data from hackers ? Offline data storage i.e. a pc without internet access ? I have heard many companies adopt this method and there is a specific term from offline data storage computers but can't recall now. but there was a thread on the same somewhere here on TE !

Please share expert suggestions/advice.
 
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Airgapped is the term for computers kept disconnected for security reasons, but it's overkill for personal data I believe.

It also depends on what kind of data you're talking about. If you're talking about PII, this mostly depends on the security of the various companies you provide this to. For other data, nothing is completely foolproof, but you can select reputed cloud providers and make sure you follow security best practices for passwords and 2FA.

For local storage, you can look into encrypted storage, again with strong passwords.
 
due to ever growing cyber crimes, How to protect data from hackers ? Offline data storage i.e. a pc without internet access ? I have heard many companies adopt this method and there is a specific term from offline data storage computers but can't recall now. but there was a thread on the same somewhere here on TE !

Please share expert suggestions/advice.
Why so concerned about? What type of data you got?
 
Are you worried about getting hacked? The hackers are generally interested in joining your PC to their botnets. They don't care about the data on your system. Their target is corporations.
 
Why so concerned about? What type of data you got?
last week my pc was hacked and my family photos videos etc. were deleted with a nasty message from the hacker in the same folder they were stored. I do not know how did the hacker get inside !!

BTW, i still can't find the airgapped storage thread/post here on TE :( There was valuable information provided in the same.
 
last week my pc was hacked and my family photos videos etc. were deleted with a nasty message from the hacker in the same folder they were stored. I do not know how did the hacker get inside !!

BTW, i still can't find the airgapped storage thread/post here on TE :( There was valuable information provided in the same.
What network you using?
Do you have AV or FW installed?
Who is your ISP?
What network devices you have?
Is the default pw same or is simple to guess for a kid?
Did you visited or installed anything suspicious?
How many people use your pc and what work usually goes inside?

If you have manual ip then someone smart form your neighborhood sniffed inside your pc just to frighten you. Used to do that in last decade when manual ip and dc++ was absolute fun! But never harmed anything only pure fun!
 
Use a local NAS if you can afford or else use an external HDD as backup drive.

Remember, there is no such thing as cloud storage. Its someone else's computer.

Also, you should look into Linux distros if you're not using applications that only run on Windows.
 
What network you using?
Do you have AV or FW installed?
Who is your ISP?
What network devices you have?
Is the default pw same or is simple to guess for a kid?
Did you visited or installed anything suspicious?
How many people use your pc and what work usually goes inside?

If you have manual ip then someone smart form your neighborhood sniffed inside your pc just to frighten you. Used to do that in last decade when manual ip and dc++ was absolute fun! But never harmed anything only pure fun!
yes local network is there coz it was an office pc,
windows defender by default,
ISP I think airtel at the office,
printers , routers, cctv etc. and other devices connected to many pcs,
don't know pw and all other technicalities, did not install anything at all,
pc is exclusive for just office work but sometimes store personal files there !

guess i should buy a laptop for my personal use.

Manual ip is there coz of LAN i think. How could the hack be done with that ? Share some knowledge (links) via PM.

Thank you everyone.
 
My partner had similar experience of photos stolen from laptop/ cloud and being uploaded to Twitter.
The organisation I work for recently had a major data theft issue.
Now we all store sensitive documents/ personal photos in thumb drives/ external SSDs.
Don't know how secure is that either, as those get attached to online laptops all the time.
But I've removed all our photographs from Google photos and iCloud to a local NAS storage.
 
last week my pc was hacked and my family photos videos etc. were deleted with a nasty message from the hacker in the same folder they were stored. I do not know how did the hacker get inside !!

BTW, i still can't find the airgapped storage thread/post here on TE :( There was valuable information provided in the same.
You got hit by ransomware?
 
Manual ip is there coz of LAN i think. How could the hack be done with that ? Share some knowledge (links) via PM.
Someone from office staff might be the culprit who is smart enough and who knows you guys aren't tech savvy.
He might be just fooling for fun but then its unlawful as it is a office computer.
Is there an IT guy to manage office infra?
I suspect insider involvement..
 
Someone from office staff might be the culprit who is smart enough and who knows you guys aren't tech savvy.
He might be just fooling for fun but then its unlawful as it is a office computer.
Is there an IT guy to manage office infra?
I suspect insider involvement..
Yes, we have filed a complain with the IT dept. The boss is also thinking to file one in cyber crime branch !
You got hit by ransomware?
I don't think so as only private data was stolen.
 
yes local network is there coz it was an office pc,
windows defender by default,
ISP I think airtel at the office,
printers , routers, cctv etc. and other devices connected to many pcs,
don't know pw and all other technicalities, did not install anything at all,
pc is exclusive for just office work but sometimes store personal files there !

guess i should buy a laptop for my personal use.

Manual ip is there coz of LAN i think. How could the hack be done with that ? Share some knowledge (links) via PM.

Thank you everyone.
There it goes. Internet security suites are cheap these days. Get ESET/KASPERSKY Internet security if you want to just install & proceed with other work.

If you have the patience to manually configure antivirus & firewall, then Comdo Internet Security is the way to go.

Forums dedicated to security, https://malwaretips.com/ and https://www.wilderssecurity.com/.
 
Cloud hosting is also risky as we have seen with the celebrity icloud hacking scandal few years ago.

So while this may not be an elegant solution, the safest way is to upload a strong password protected rar archive to a cloud hosting site. I.e. not photos/videos directly, but inside an archive file(s).
 
Cloud is crap esp. for personal stuff. Someone from cloud team can very well sniff in your data as eod all are humans and evil minds are everywhere.
Best is to take responsibility and be responsible for your own actions. Relying on someone is another added headache!
 
Cloud hosting is also risky as we have seen with the celebrity icloud hacking scandal few years ago.

So while this may not be an elegant solution, the safest way is to upload a strong password protected rar archive to a cloud hosting site. I.e. not photos/videos directly, but inside an archive file(s).
Wasn't this the result of bad security hygiene from the users' sides, rather than a breach of the cloud storage service itself?
 
Wasn't this the result of bad security hygiene from the users' sides, rather than a breach of the cloud storage service itself?
I don't believe that was the only factor. Icloud's security setup was too lax at the time. They've improved since, but who knows...
 
Simplest protection to do is to keep your device's turned off when not in active use. A hacker can't access a device that is physically not running.
Alongwith that make sure your device's are patched to the latest version of your OS with all security patches installed. If a device is not patched, it's asking for trouble.
 
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