Secrets of Secret Data Storage
If you live in a country where freedom of speech is persecuted and you can be arrested at any moment, have all your devices confiscated, and your bank accounts blocked, you have surely faced the question of how to store valuable information: passwords, business assets, backups, documents, developments.
External storage devices like USB drives can be found, although if you have a reliable hiding place that you trust, this can be a good solution. Cloud storage services typically charge monthly fees, and if you cannot pay them for a couple of months, your data will be deleted. Moreover, malicious actors can gain access to your computer, and if data can be deleted from cloud storage, nothing will stop them from doing so.
Typically, users employ special software for synchronization with cloud storage, or they are constantly logged in through their browsers. A forensic expert will need no more than 10 minutes to discover all your cloud storage accounts.
Yes, to delete passwords, you can install Panic Button (the project was closed in 2021) – an emergency data destruction system that instantly clears passwords and browsing history in browsers. Future versions of Panic Button are planned to disable access to cloud storage obtained through software, but this does not solve the problem of cloud storage being blocked for non-payment.
Storing Valuable Data with Friends
The simplest option is to find people to whom you can send valuable data for storage, for example, by forwarding it through a messenger. It’s better to have several reliable people, and it’s good if they are located in different countries.
All valuable data should be packed in a crypto-container, the password for which will be stored in your head, so that your friends, even with a strong desire, cannot access its contents. Come up with a neutral name so that even indirect signs do not reveal the importance of the data.
If you lose all your devices and are released after a year, you will only need to ask your friends for the crypto-container and regain access to all the information. Additionally, while behind bars, you can pass instructions to a trusted person through your lawyer, who will be able to extract the necessary information from the crypto-container.
Secret Cloud
But if you don’t have people you are ready to entrust with the information, you can create a secret cloud storage that no one will know about.