Discontinue Dropbox?

I have talked about Dropbox in a previous post. Dropbox provides a seamless way to have access to all of your current work files on all your devices (desktop computer/laptop computer/home computer/smart phone/iPad) and can also serve as a rudimentary off-site backup of your files.

The service was recently rocked by changes when they announced in their Terms of Service that Dropbox employees have access to your files (when originally it was thought otherwise). This has caused many users in the legal community to discontinue their use of the service. To top it off they also had a software update that went wrong and potentially allowed anyone access to your files for a four-hour window. So should anyone trust their files to this online service or any other?

To address this topic I direct you to a thoughtful post, Alabama Ethics and Dropbox, from The Soul Practitioner legal blog. I have not yet seen any specific direction from the court on this topic in Ohio. If you are aware of any please let me know.

Via: Technolawyer SmallLaw

Guest Post – Back in Time: Free Tool Offers Access to Old Web Data

Today’s guest post comes to us from Frank Wisehart. Frank is the director of business advisory services at Schneider Downs, an audit, tax, and advisory firm in Columbus, OH, and Pittsburgh, PA. Frank is long-time OSBA CLE presenter on a variety of topics.

Back in Time: Free Tool Offers Access to Old Web Data

Clients and their attorneys often want to use information gathered on the Internet as evidence only to find the information later changed, wiped-out, erased and gone forever. Unless you download the coveted data quickly and carefully, it may be impossible to demonstrate key ascertainments you have made from the Internet.

Websites can be taken down, renamed, altered and edited. Good evidence is frequently lost in just a few keystrokes in a matter of minutes. For the computer-savvy, cleaning the old information from your computer is equally easy. Simply purchase a low-cost or freeware product that scrambles your hard disk so thoroughly that it becomes impossible or extremely difficult to recover the electronic data that existed at any given moment in time.

To solve this problem institutionally, all you would need to do is actually download the entire internet and archive it frequently. Only the federal government has the interest and resources to perform this task. The cost of preserving such a stupendous amount of data would be overwhelming for the best data storage computers available today. Or is it?

Would you believe it if I told you that this old information is available, and you can access it in less time than it takes to fill your coffee cup? http://www.archive.org downloads the Internet (yes, that’s right, downloads the Internet) and stores it for general public use. Want to relive Enron’s 2001 “Discover the power of WHY” campaign? In your favorite web browser, type “www.archive.org.” Under “Search,” type in the website you want to visit, http://www.enron.com. Then, select the “All Media Types” pull-down menu and choose the “Wayback Machine.”

You will be presented with a number of date choices on which the site you requested was preserved and recorded as it existed on that date. The available recording date options are shown as graphical listings by year and corresponding blue circles as shown below:

Next, click on the year and blue circle corresponding to the date you want to view (in our example, August 1, 2001) and voila, discover Enron’s “the power of WHY” campaign:

Yes, this is cool! There are some limitations with the Wayback Machine. It does not record every single day and it does not always download every linked page on a given day. But, as a free tool, this could be an invaluable resource. So, the next time a defendant or fraudster thinks he has absconded with information previously available on the Internet, check this site. His e-larceny may actually enhance your case for less than the cost of a cup of coffee.

Frank A. Wisehart, MBA, CPA/ABV, CFE, CVA, is the director of business advisory services at Schneider Downs, an audit, tax, and advisory firm in Columbus, OH, and Pittsburgh, PA. He has more than 20 years of experience in forensic accounting, fraud investigation, business valuation, management consulting, litigation support, transaction due diligence, and expert testimony. E-mail: fwisehart@schneiderdowns.com.

Further musings about off-site backups

Take a look at this great post by Shawn Blanc.

Via – Shawn Blanc

Do you know where your backups are?

I have heard it said that there are two kinds of people: those who have had a hard drive failure and those who will. It is going to happen, so you want to make sure you are prepared. The worst feeling is realizing that your hard drive has crashed and all of those digital photos you took of the kids are gone forever and all of your client files are deleted also.

These days so much of what we do is stored on our computers —  client files, photos, tax returns, music and all the drafts of your novel you have been writing, among many other things. It is imperative that you make a habit out of backing up your files. Many programs are available that allow you to back up your files regularly.

Use Online Backups

Many services, such as Mozy, Carbonite, and CrashPlan, perform online backups. Mozy has both home and professional options ($6 per month for up to 50 GB). Carbonite offers unlimited backup for $59 a year (home). CrashPlan offers local backups to your own computer and/or hard drives for free (as well as offering remote backups starting at $3 per month for unlimited GB). It is important that your files are always protected so you should back up your files frequently. These programs make that happen: They run in the background and take care of your off site backups automatically.

Make a complete image of your computer’s hard drive

Programs for both Windows and Mac are available that make images of your computer’s hard drive. Mac offers SuperDuper, which is free ($30 for additional features). Windows offers Acronis ($50 for one computer). The advantage of programs like these is that if your computer suffers a permanent failure of its main hard drive, you can typically boot your computer from your backup hard drive and be back in business in a matter of minutes.

Use a file synchronization program like Dropbox

You can use Dropbox to keep all of your current working files backed up for free (up to 2 GB). Sign up for an account online and install the software on your computer. Once you do this, all of your files (kept in your dropbox) are always automatically synced to the Dropbox website instantly. This works as a very quick and effective backup of your current files. It also means that you have access to these files from anywhere through the website. You can also install Dropbox onto any other devices that you have and the files will be synchronized there are well (home pc/work pc/android phone/blackberry/iphone/ipad). This can be very convenient.

Hard drive failures are common, so it is important that you follow these tips and back up your files regularly.