
Tarsnap - Online backups for the truly paranoid - ashleyblackmore
http://www.tarsnap.com/
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bifrost
The only problem with tarsnap is that it uses AWS, or did as of the last time
I talked with Colin. I would love to see it move off onto a less personally
annoying service, but its service to do with as he pleases.

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locusm
Why do you find it annoying? I think Colin encrypts all user data if privacy
is a concern... Im using Duplicity but am looking at tarsnap.

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bifrost
Because AWS is part of the problem, not part of the solution (right now) and
I'd prefer not to give them money indirectly if I can help it. If there was an
"anything but AWS" option, I'd gladly take it.

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venomsnake
I would say lets make one. Backblaze have shown what you can do with commodity
hardware.

Then you just need smart client that splits data 3-way into 3 different
national jurisdictions. The data for each file is split in 2 and send to two
different nations and the encrypted keys for decrypting each file are stored
on 3rd with optional self destruct/dead man's switch. Everything is done
client side. The hardware costs seem reasonable. And if someone is to subpoena
the data needs to fight the legal system in 3 countries and obtain the master
key.

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bifrost
IMHO backblaze is not a good example, because their design is prone to a few
kinds of onerous failures due to the poor hw design of some of their
components. Its much smarter to build this sort of thing with an actual JBOD
chassis and a SAS controller

> Then you just need smart client that splits data 3-way into 3 different
> national jurisdictions.

This actually doesn't help much.

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venomsnake
Why do you think it does not help?

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phamilton
I know scrypt is awesome, but isn't encrypted traffic still problematic if all
traffic is being recorded? If the NSA Rubaiyat has virtually unlimited
resources, doesn't tarsnap eventually break down as a safe way to backup data?
I'd love to hear Colin chime in.

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cperciva
Depends what exactly you mean by "virtually unlimited". A direct attack on the
crypto in Tarsnap is ~ 2^128 operations, which is beyond even the wildest
guesses of NSA's computing capacity. In practice, they would attack in another
direction -- e.g., exploit a vulnerability in your web browser to take over
your computer and steal your keys.

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finnw
Previous submission:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5767116](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5767116)

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cperciva
I thought the dupe detector was supposed to prevent the same link being posted
twice just two weeks apart... not that I'm objecting to the extra traffic, of
course.

