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Data Backup For Business

Long-distance Connections

Admin on October 4, 2018

Transferring data halfway around the world is a difficult and slow process; often the fastest solution would be to physically board a plane with the data and hand deliver it to the end destination. Speed is not the only issue when considering long-distance data transfers—there is also the trouble of initial configuration. There are tools, however, that can significantly improve both speed and simplicity when it comes to the initial configuration; GoodSync Connect is one of those tools.

GoodSync Connect is one of the many supported protocols that can be used within the GoodSync application. It allows devices that typically wouldn’t be able to directly communicate with one another to overcome that communication barrier. By using a mediator server to create a peer-to-peer connection between the two endpoints, GoodSync Connect improves speed while simultaneously providing several innovative features to its users.

GoodSync requires no port forwarding during initial setup and all devices that are registered to a GoodSync Connect account can be accessed from any location. An interesting application of this capability is the ability to turn a file server into an easily accessible storage system, effectively creating a private cloud.

GoodSync can also perform what is called “block level copy.” Any time a change is made to a file and that change must propagate to another device, only the change and not the full file must be transferred. For example, if there is a one-gigabit file and a single line of text is changed in that file, typically the entire file would need to be transferred. With block level copy, however, only that one changed line requires transfer, subsequently saving time and network resources. Additionally, when taking advantage of GoodSync Connect’s higher transfer speeds, without having to communicate with the mediator server, direct addressing can be used.

A higher degree of security is another added benefit of GoodSync Connect, as data is transferred over SSL/TLS. Additionally, GoodSync can utilize two-factor authentication with a GoodSync Connect account. This ensures that no one other than the intended individual can access the devices registered to the account; there are few other transfer protocols that have such capabilities.

Finally, the management of registered devices is easy and possible from the GoodSync website. From the administrative console, file shares can be created and unused devices can be removed.

GoodSync Connect is a useful tool for a multitude of situations, long-distance transfers being just one of them. Try it for yourself and see how it can save you or your business time today!

Configuration of GoodSync Connect is free and easy. For more information, click here.

Data Backup

Where Are Your Mobile Phone Photos Saved?

Admin on September 27, 2018

Taking photos with a mobile phone rather than a point-and-shoot camera has been the standard method of recording memories for quite some time. It’s convenient, easily accessible, and allows for almost instantaneous sharing. Long lost are the days of waiting for rolls of film to be developed or sitting down to reminisce over physical photo albums; these images are most often stored either on the device itself or within a social media account. What would happen though if you were to lose that device or delete that social media account? If your device isn’t backing up to a particular cloud hosting solution, when the device is lost, your photos would be lost along with it.

Then, of course, there is always the question of the security and reliability of those cloud services. iCloud, for example, has had several breaches that have led to photos being exposed to the public.

Thankfully there’s an alternative. GoodSync is a secure backup and synchronization software that lets you easily back up your mobile photos to a secondary device of your choosing. While existing social media platforms can act as a stand-in, they have never been a secure solution as their terms of service agreements often state that any user-created material uploaded to their platform, relinquishes all client ownership, instead transferring that ownership to the platform. This means that if your images are lost, exposed to an unintended audience, or used for targeted advertising, the platform is in no way responsible. Such policies, for obvious reasons, have led to scrutiny. Cloud hosting solutions are not significantly better as the security and availability of your data is not fully guaranteed. Subsequently, it’s in your best interest to take the additional steps necessary to protect yourself and ensure the availability of your data.

Our previous blog post discussed GoodSync’s encryption capability. Not only can you back up your files to the location of your choosing, but you can also encrypt the data as an added measure of security and privacy. For example, if you choose to save a copy of your files with a popular cloud service provider, with GoodSync’s encryption, you can ensure these providers are not viewing your private images. It’s as simple as checking a box and specifying the password that will be used to encrypt the files. A back up can also be conveniently performed over the internet, eliminating the need for a physical connection. This means that once a backup is scheduled, it can be performed even when you’re on the move.

To recap, by linking your mobile phone with a GoodSync Connect Account, you can automatically sync your mobile photos directly to your home computer, offsite storage location, or cloud hosting provider. This minimizes the consequences of losing your device, while also maximizing your security.

To back up your photos from your Android device, click here.

For Business

Protect Your Personal Data in the Cloud with Encryption by GoodSync

Admin on September 20, 2018

According to an article on Statista[1], in 2018, almost 2 billion people worldwide used personal cloud storage, and it keeps growing. Using four-year-old data, Eurostat[2] calculated that every fifth European (20%) saved files on the Internet in 2014.

According to another article on Statista [3], 44% of cloud storage users are concerned about the privacy of their data.

If you are reading this, you are most likely using or at least considering using one of the cloud file storage services, and you may even be worried about other people obtaining unauthorized access to your data. And if for any reason you’re not, you definitely should be.

The Conversation site in their January, 2018 article “How secure is your data when it’s stored in the cloud[4]?” mentions that none of the popular cloud file storages including Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, Amazon Drive, and Microsoft OneDrive, allow users to encrypt their data and keep the key.

What does that mean for you?

If you are using one of the popular cloud file storages, companies that operate these services can obtain access to your data. They can analyze your data. They can share your data, and you often don’t have control over who sees your data. For example, some companies may decide to share user data with authorities under conditions where you would have chosen to not do so yourself.

How do you protect yourself from that threat?

There are two choices: you can build your own cloud (an excellent choice for mid- and large-size companies; GoodSync has all machinery for that) or you can use GoodSync to encrypt your data on the cloud service of your choice.

GoodSync is a cross-platform file synchronization tool that supports all major cloud file storages including Google Drive Files, Google Team Drive, Google Docs, Amazon S3, Amazon Cloud Drive, Dropbox, Box.com, Backblaze B2, OneDrive / Office 365 / SharePoint, SharePoint 2013, MS Azure Blobs, MS Azure Files, as well as any other server connected through Secure FTP (SSH), FTP, or WebDAV. GoodSync also has its own built-in encrypted and compressed storage called OneFile.

GoodSync supports one-way or two-way synchronization. When you create a new synchronization “Job”, you can select two folders that you want to keep in sync. Normally, one of your folders is local (let’s keep it on the left side) and the other is remote (let’s keep it on the right-side).

To encrypt your files on the cloud storage of your choice, go to the Right Side section of Job Options (Job->Options), check the “Encrypt File Bodies and Names” checkbox, and specify the password that will be used to encrypt names and bodies of your files on the remote side.

The “Test” button allows you to check the correctness of the entered password if you are connecting to a remote folder that has already been set up (e.g. if you are accessing a previously set up folder from a different device or if you have decided to share files among a group of people).

The “Empty Sync Folder” clears the remote folder from any files and prepares it for encrypted synchronization operations.

After you hit the “Save” button at the bottom of the window, your GoodSync job will be ready.

Add some files that you want to deliver to the cloud side in encrypted form to the left (Local) folder.

Hit “Analyze” button. You will see that there are some new files on your left (Local) side.

Hit “Sync” button. You will see that some files with garbled names appeared on your right (Remote) side.

You may also notice that if you are not using one of the compressed file formats (e.g., late Microsoft Office, PDF, JPG), your encrypted file is also smaller in size. It happens because GoodSync is also trying to compress the file before encryption.

This is how easy, literally in three steps, you can convert any popular cloud file storage (if it is supported by GoodSync) into an encrypted and compressed storage. You receive the double benefit of compression by enforcing the privacy of your data and saving on storage space.

If you are interested in the details of encryption implementation, please visit the GoodSync technical manual: https://www.goodsync.com/manual#side_tab

You can learn more about business and personal GoodSync solutions on our website: https://www.goodsync.com/

All GoodSync products are available for free trial before purchase: https://www.goodsync.com/download

Sources:

[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/499558/worldwide-personal-cloud-storage-users/

[2] https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Internet_and_cloud_services_-_statistics_on_the_use_by_individuals

[3] https://www.statista.com/statistics/250191/consumer-concerns-about-cloud-services/

[4] http://theconversation.com/how-secure-is-your-data-when-its-stored-in-the-cloud-90000