iCloud pictures help

[otherclive]

In my case it is not that I don't like, or even that I don't use Cloud based storage or even don't use Gmail, my issue is I don't really understand the risks in doing so.
I would like to know, debunking any myths?

Not sure what myths you are referring to but the best way must be to look at a number of sources and draw your own conclusions. I use Norton 360/LifeLock on our devices. Some say it’s overkill on Apple but it doesn’t slow them down in any noticeable way. Although on my new MacMini running Big Sur operating system I’ve not reinstalled it yet but have Norton’s software Safe Web monitoring Safari/Bing.
This may help for starters


https://us.norton.com/internetsecurity-privacy-cloud-data-security.html

 

[Sam Vimes]

Nothing in life is risk free so all we can do is assess how valuable our information is and what risks we may face. Then take appropriate action based on our capabilities and resources. If cloud backup works for you that's fine. If keeping it local works for you, again, fine.

Holding on to a large piece of wood, a lucky teddybear and a four leaf clover, I have never had a fire or been flooded out or burgled or had an earthquake nearby, struck by lightening or any other catastrophe. BUT I have had hard drives fail along with other pieces of equipment just due to the nature of them. A minor irritation but no loss of information because of my backups

So, hard drive failures is my main concern and duplicate drives cover this problem for me.

I hope that those who use cloud backup never have a problem at home but should that happen do you have access details i.e username/password etc to allow you to get your data back if you no longer have your own machine(s)

As for emails, I have my own domain name with several email addresses which are used for different on line transactions. I also have a large number of gmail accounts for things like forums. I also have a Microsoft email account which I don't use. All my domain email addresses are POP on my workstation but IMAP on my mobile devices. This means when I get back home and fire up the workstation it pulls all the emails down from the server and removes them from the mobile devices.

Its entirely likely that even my email provider keeps copies of my emails in case law enforcement agencies request access but at least using POP at home means they are not readily avaiable to some other agent logging into my email account.

With approaching old age a thing that's been on my mind as the IT expert in our family, is, should I shuffle off this immoral (sic) coil before my wife how will she get through the security measures I have in place. For instance the majority of passwords etc for online accounts are stored encrypted on my machine and she would need access to them and she's not overly IT savvy.

 

[otherclive]

Nothing in life is risk free so all we can do is assess how valuable our information is and what risks we may face. Then take appropriate action based on our capabilities and resources. If cloud backup works for you that's fine. If keeping it local works for you, again, fine.

Holding on to a large piece of wood, a lucky teddybear and a four leaf clover, I have never had a fire or been flooded out or burgled or had an earthquake nearby, struck by lightening or any other catastrophe. BUT I have had hard drives fail along with other pieces of equipment just due to the nature of them. A minor irritation but no loss of information because of my backups

So, hard drive failures is my main concern and duplicate drives cover this problem for me.

I hope that those who use cloud backup never have a problem at home but should that happen do you have access details i.e username/password etc to allow you to get your data back if you no longer have your own machine(s)

As for emails, I have my own domain name with several email addresses which are used for different on line transactions. I also have a large number of gmail accounts for things like forums. I also have a Microsoft email account which I don't use. All my domain email addresses are POP on my workstation but IMAP on my mobile devices. This means when I get back home and fire up the workstation it pulls all the emails down from the server and removes them from the mobile devices.

Its entirely likely that even my email provider keeps copies of my emails in case law enforcement agencies request access but at least using POP at home means they are not readily avaiable to some other agent logging into my email account.

With approaching old age a thing that's been on my mind as the IT expert in our family, is, should I shuffle off this immoral (sic) coil before my wife how will she get through the security measures I have in place. For instance the majority of passwords etc for online accounts are stored encrypted on my machine and she would need access to them and she's not overly IT savvy.

Re username details to the cloud storage I use fingerprint ID on my portable devices, Safari keychain too. So as long as you can get into Keychain you can see your passwords and usernames, from anywhere in the world with a wifi or 4G+. Those that safeguard money, or sites where money could be spent use long MAC generated passwords, under password manager control, so I only need one password to access Password Manager control and at present I can remember it, and its changes. Using Norton Safeweb on the iPad and phones when I look in Keychain it tells me if any passwords are too similar and also if any saved websites have had data breaches. So I can change the passwords. But any such breaches tend to be with low key sites which if i don't use them much I just delete them and use new password when I next login.

In answer to your last concern, write the key ones down and show her how to access, or save in a couple of geographical locations IE with your kids. If you use two factor verification you should soon know if they are plundering their inheritance.

 

[Sam Vimes]

I use a password manager but my inherent mistrust of cloud services means I don't sync my passwords to a server. Instead I keep them locally and manually sync them between the machines that need them.

I also have a duplicate copy in a spreadsheet in an encrypted partition so that should my password manager stop working - perhaps due to an update that's poorly tested - I can still get them another way.

I don't do anything serious on my phone or tablet. The only thing that needs the paswords are the email apps.

I use 2FA where possible and an Authenticator App rather than SMS, although some services will only do SMS. My banks still require the card reader.

I think even writing things down for my wife would be a) still a challenge because of the number of steps to go through b) not very secure.

The idea of giving the kids some access seems like a good idea and I'll have to explore the best way to do this.

Nothing is going to be 100% foolproof so I just do what I can to keep a low internet profile and footprint and secure my data as best I can.

 

[Buckman]

How does a Password Manager work?

 

[otherclive]

How does a Password Manager work?

You have a software program that stores your passwords in encrypted format but you only have one password to open it, which you hopefully remember. If you do a web search you will find quite a few reviews of different password managers. Some are better than others Windows others for Apple. Some security software may also include a password manager too but these rarely get mainstream reviewed.

https://www.pcworld.com/article/3207185/best-password-managers-reviews-and-buying-advice.html

 

[Sam Vimes]

Just a bit more about Password Managers. We're encouraged to have passwords that are not easily guessable and not re-used across different on line services. If you've only got one or two to worry about this might not be a problem but when you run in to 10s of different services it gets hard to remember which is for which. If you can remember them at all.

If you want to see how secure your passwords are try this web site

GRC's | Password Haystacks: How Well Hidden is Your Needle?

Password Haystacks: How Well Hidden is Your Needle?

www.grc.com

What a Password Manager does for you is make life a little easier. It will generate complex passwords for you and store them against the service log in details. In addition it will tell you what strength the password is, when you last changed it and if you've used it across other services.

All the details are stored in an encrypted database and the program has to be opened with a master password which should be hard to guess but also memorable.

So, having got your Password Manager installed, you'll see in your Browser toolbar line a small icon for it meaning the program has been added as an extension to your browser. If you then goto your web site of choice to login and enter your username and password you should get a prompt from the PW Manager to save the details. If you do so, then the next time you visit the same web site it will indicate that it knows this web site and it can fill in the details for you. Additionally within the PW Manager is the option to click on the service you want and it will open your browser and log you in. The caveat is that sometimes web site login pages may change and this second method doesn't always work. Its usually easy to work around this.

You can store other personal details as well, such as Credit Card numbers, addresses etc -all of which are stored encrypted.

What the paid for versions are also providing for you is the service to have all your username/password/details stored on their servers so they are accessible from across diffent devices. In other words a central database of yours in the cloud. If you like this option then OK, but I prefer not to sync my data to their servers and because of this I get to use the PW Manager for free.

Browsers like Chrome and Firefox also have the ability to store log in and password details for you but how good these are I can't say.

 

[Beehpee]

I use gmail, I also have pictures in iCloud and lately pictures in my pc one drive, all of this goes somewhere by whatever road it’s using, as long as I’m not getting ripped/hacked/robbed etc Ive lived a mostly law abiding life, I’m no angel, I speed when driving at times and I’m sure I’ve done other things in 65 years that people could/would raise an eyebrow at but I’m not worried about anyone mooching through my emails and pictures, I’m sure they’d be pretty soon bored and move on else where, things that I would not want made public, banking, financial details such as pensions etc are made as safe as I can make them, but otherwise I’m happy with my online life in its present guise, in fact I’d hate it without the internet.

BP

 

[Buckman]

Thanks for the above, but I still do not understand how a password manager works. Is it similar to FF remembering your Login details for different websites? Surely the password data is stored elsewhere and not local so what is stopping someone else accessing the data?

 

[Guzzilazz]

Thanks for the above, but I still do not understand how a password manager works. Is it similar to FF remembering your Login details for different websites? Surely the password data is stored elsewhere and not local so what is stopping someone else accessing the data?

I use a PW manager that uses 256 bit encryption on the storing of the details... this is the equivalent of an Enigma machine with 256 wheels. The encryption key is on your device to encrypt and decrypt the data - i.e. unlike enigma, the server can't display the decrypted data...

 

[Sam Vimes]

Thanks for the above, but I still do not understand how a password manager works. Is it similar to FF remembering your Login details for different websites? Surely the password data is stored elsewhere and not local so what is stopping someone else accessing the data?

Its similar in some ways as FF remembering your details although the general opinion seems to be that at the moment dedicated PW managers are more secure and offer more options. They've been around a lot longer than the option for FF to store them.

With FF or Chrome etc the login details are stored locally but like PW managers you have the option to sync them across different devices and this will mean having them stored in the cloud somewhere. My knowledge of FF etc ends there since I don't use this option

I use a PW manager but only keep the details stored locally - encrypted. If you choose the option to sync/store them, still encrypted, in the cloud then you'll still need the main password plus there may be the option of two factor authentication to access your cloud account. This limits the possibility of some rogue agent accessing your account.

Think of it like your own personal vault in the cloud that you can access anywhere in the world if you have the right key.

As I mentioned previously PW Managers do more than store your details as they can generate long hard to guess random passwords, remind you to change them and warn if they're used across more than one service.

 

[otherclive]

Its similar in some ways as FF remembering your details although the general opinion seems to be that at the moment dedicated PW managers are more secure and offer more options. They've been around a lot longer than the option for FF to store them.

With FF or Chrome etc the login details are stored locally but like PW managers you have the option to sync them across different devices and this will mean having them stored in the cloud somewhere. My knowledge of FF etc ends there since I don't use this option

I use a PW manager but only keep the details stored locally - encrypted. If you choose the option to sync/store them, still encrypted, in the cloud then you'll still need the main password plus there may be the option of two factor authentication to access your cloud account. This limits the possibility of some rogue agent accessing your account.

Think of it like your own personal vault in the cloud that you can access anywhere in the world if you have the right key.

As I mentioned previously PW Managers do more than store your details as they can generate long hard to guess random passwords, remind you to change them and warn if they're used across more than one service.

The top ones are also managed by companies that take security very seriously. Dashlane had a glitch a while back but they got on top of that very quickly and notified their customers.

 

[Robert_374373903]

Just happen to come to this thread about cloud. Am with BT and have never been able to go into cloud, keep getting Error UN2 even sometimes it said your not eligible. So this morning talked to BT expert who could not help so passed it to another "expert". Waiting.

 

[Dustydog]

I may be talking rot but I subscribe to the i cloud for back up and photo storage etc. Costs me 71p a month on DD with Apple. I now have thousands of photos and can access them instantly.

 

[Beachball]

I may be talking rot but I subscribe to the i cloud for back up and photo storage etc. Costs me 71p a month on DD with Apple. I now have thousands of photos and can access them instantly.

Hi Dusty Sounds very reasonable to me