IT disaster recovery

[Falstaff]

I've been trying to get my head around personal IT/data Disaster Recovery and the kit I need to buy and actually use. I see the 2 key potential risks as being a nationwide hit - such as national power outage/ satellite crash global comms/cloud failure, and/or a total loss of home and IT kit. ( To me a mobile phone is IT kit ok?)

As a self employed person, and probably most folk, I would then be totally stuffed, and left with any small amount of hard cash I squirrelled away (if not also seized as suspicous).

I've never had much success recovering via remote 3rd party services like cloud and phone/data storage companies. I'm not ruling it out as one option, but am leaning towards some form of self sufficiency and un-powered data storage - e.g. a seperate solid state hard drive, thumb drives, memory cards etc that could be used on borrowed/replacement IT kit.

Then I hit the wall of IT security: 2-factor authentication, password managers, Key Passes, and Secure keys- Duh?
- It has to be non-web reliant, say to access my own stored data and passwords - e.g. to print off personal ID, friends addresses/phone nos etc etc. on a third party IT/mobile phone that still has a charge in it.

Besides data storage devices, I think I need a password manager, a physical Pass Key, and/or a Secure Key ? And I think a USB to mobile phone connector..
Help! What do other folk do, if anything, besides using old tech paper and pen?

 

[Chris]

I just have stuff stored on SSDs, backed up to portable ones if it’s important. Also utilise cloud options for a lot of stuff (my desktop PC is backed up to OneDrive for example) so that I can recover stuff remotely in event of a fire, for example.

Why would you have cash seized?

With security it’s all about the risk. I can’t see many scenarios where an individual would need to go to the extent of things like physical keys in combination with password managers and their own full physical array for data backups.

It’s possible to get too paranoid, and if ‘the powers that be’ want to get access to something they will do regardless. Remember our intelligence services work to get into state level secure systems. If they can do that, an individual has no chance.

And if you somehow can keep them out, they will just lock you up until you do give them access.

As someone in IT and with a heavy focus on IT security (including dealing with attacks from state actors), I wouldn’t bother going beyond external, encrypted SSDs and a password manager. For disaster recovery, add in a cloud service. Weak passwords are the biggest risk to your data security.

 

[Pattree]

There isn’t a lot we mere mortals can do if a malevolent state wants to crash our systems. The most safety conscious operation that I ever worked for other than Government was interlink express.

They kept first, second and third generation backup discs. These were “air buffered”: never connected to the internet once stored. They could be accessed by a computer that was not connected to any broadcast system and the copied data then used.
It was a huge operation.

 

[Woody girl]

Pen and paper can't be hacked, it works in a blackout
Can be stored in a fire proof container.

Not using tech, past my phone, and that only for accessing yt, and phoning , texting or googling info that I require, I realy have no idea, so my remarks are probably easily dismissed.

I go to a physical bank, like I used to if I need to deal with them in any capacity bar withdrawing cash on my card. If the banks are hacked, its always a good idea to have an up to date paper statement. Can't be, "lost in the system" or argued with!

 

[GreyCat]

Connectivity wise, I have Starlink with Ecoflow backup (commercial systems for my business). So if some numpty crashes into the pole that brings our power and fibre up from the village, I can still do core work, and we still have voice-over-wifi for mobile phones.

Beyond that, @Chris has summed it up. As I've said in other situations, if the whole Microsoft ecosystem goes down, then we have a rather more pressing issue nationally than the local records of XX organisation......

GC

 

[Falstaff]

Thanks. I'm thinking of personal recovery/actions while the powers that be sort things out. That might be short term or longer term. My most likely risk is a housefire or burglary, in both cases a total IT rebuild is likely.
Certainly not trying to hide or prevent authorised access, as Chris says, if they want it they can get it anyway.

The only physical banks around here are in town. The local town council has just moved to (expensive) cashless parking charges without meters, where payment by a mobile phone is mandatory, and 2 factor authorisation to pay it is pretty much also mandatory.
I certainly need a password manager, but something cloud based is not much use to me.