Your private data, how do you keep it? Storage tips and hints

The digital data saved on our devices accumulate greatly, some of which are what we need and want to preserve such as personal photos and files that are related to study and work, and some of them we keep only temporarily, I will try in this article to summarize the whole topic, starting from the security concern and ending with technical solutions. As a reminder, this topic discusses personal data only, and will not address work environments and corporate solutions.

The types of data the average user has are:

1. Very important data : We want to keep it always, and in case it is likely to be lost or stolen, we wish that no one who finds it can see it, such as personal and family photos / videos, instruments and important documents.
2. Medium important data : we want to keep it always, but there is no harm in it falling into the hands of others, such as study documents and what is happening in its orbit.
3. Temporary data : such as data that we download from the Internet and use it temporarily, and then get rid of it or keep it, but we do not care about preserving it or falling into the hands of others.

The means of conservation for the average user are:

1. Offline : It is the saving of data on the usual / traditional storage methods such as device hard disk, flash memory, external hard disk and other common storage methods.
2. Online : It is the current predominant line of saving data on cloud storage devices such as DropBox.com , BOX.com , COPY.com , SugarSync.com, and others.

What are your concerns when saving data?

• Very important data : saving them on traditional means such as a hard disk device makes it vulnerable to damage if the device is infected with a virus, saving it on external storage means that makes it vulnerable to loss and whoever finds it can see it, saving it on cloud services. Whoever breaks into your account can see this data, the most appropriate solution is Keeping them on an encrypted external storage medium, which guarantees that you will be damaged by viruses, and in the event that they are lost, those who find them will not be able to see their contents.
• Medium importance data : it can be saved in any available storage medium, but saving a copy of it on the cloud services ensures that there is a backup copy of it when your device is damaged or lost.
• Temporary data : It is recommended to save it on the device only, so that it does not consume the space available to us on the cloud services, and if it is exposed to any damage, we can download it from the Internet again.

It is clear that there is a major problem which is privacy. I previously consulted Professor Abdullah Al-Ali and he referred to Ali using an external storage method that supports the data encryption feature at the level of the volume itself and without the need for additional programs, which is called FDE = Full Disk Encryption and there are several devices that support this feature and Among the most famous is  WD My Passport, which is available in the local market at a low price (500 gig = 210 riyals). 

When preparing the hard disk for the first time, you will use a program that installs on your computer for one time only, through which you choose a complex password, when connecting the hard disk to any device again, you will be asked for the password, forgetting this word means the complete loss of data so try to use a word that you remember well, all The files that are added to this hard disk will be encrypted, and the loss of this hard disk means the loss of your data, but whoever finds it cannot see it in any way. This hard disk can be assigned to what you consider very important from the data, and this is what I specifically did to get rid of the obsession with losing this data or falling into mischievous hands.

What’s Next? A lot of medium importance and temporary data, we would like to keep it with less risks as well, one of the solutions is to use network storage devices, which are devices that work directly with Internet modems and you can install inexpensive hards on them to provide high capacities at home, these capacities are shared, and you can control Who can access these capacities on the home network, my choice for these devices was:

This device is  Synology® DiskStation DS213air and it supports the wireless feature, meaning that the process of adding it to a home network does not require connection by cable, and it can be placed anywhere that the WiFi broadcast connects, it contains two ports. You can install hardscreens (3.5 or 2.5) with a maximum of 4 terabytes Per hard disk and up to 8 terabytes for the total capacity.

 For advanced users, this device supports RAIDI installed two (2) old hard drives each with a capacity of 500 gigabytes and a total of 1 terabyte, and I applied RAID 1 to get a total capacity of 500 gigabytes with mirroring system, which I can access from any home device. This device is sold in the local market ( without hard disk ) at a price of 1230 SAR. In conclusion, I hope this article was useful for you to protect your personal and important data.