Storing securely
Storage devices are conceivably more easily concealed, but even-so, any device can be easily read for its contents. Almost every digital device, from a cell phone to a GPS is a store for data. The general rule of thumb is to back everything up. However, in some cases even backups may be compromised.
Known issues and what you can do
Environmental conditions
High temperatures and humidity can affect some forms of storage. Commonly known as bit rot, CDs and DVDs are known to grow mould rendering them unusable. Magnetic tape is also pre-disposed to deterioration in these conditions.
- Air tight and water resistant, re-sealable plastic bags can be used to protect video tape, SD cards, USB sticks and other digital media. Carry such bags with you at all times.
- Tapes can also be risky for the Indonesian humid environment. Make back up every 5 years, and store in re-sealable, water resistant plastic bags. Make sure the air in the bag is sucked out with a vacuum cleaner. Store in a cool, dry place. If possible use a dehumidifier.
- Unstable electricity supply should be avoided. If possible, use an uninterrupted power supply (UPS) at your work place. In the field protect your devices with power surge protectors and limit the use of external drives. Sudden loss of power can result in corrupted or loss of data.
Resource limitations
If you don't have access to low-cost broadband, nor secure access and funds to cover storage on cloud based back-up services, such new storage mediums are out of reach to most Indonesian activists.
- Resource limitations solutions noted for further research.
Video files are huge
Video consumes much more data than other digital mediums. Under Windows operating systems storing large files can be tricky. Many drives are formatted as FAT32. FAT32 will not support files larger than 2GB. This is not common knowledge.
- Using H.264 codec to achieve smaller video file size without losing too many details (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC)
Unencrypted data
Without data encryption all digital data, including Blue Ray, can be retrieved no matter the format. Tapes offer no encryption.
- One of the most secure forms of data encryption, for both storage and when one is on the move, is TruCrypt. Available for all platforms you can carry TruCrypt files on any device. Picture or video files can be camouflaged as different file types by using True Crypt, stored on any device including data DVDs.
- Encrypt entire data and drives for both Mac and PC (note neither options have been tested):
- Mac / Encrypting an entire hard disc.
Select Security & privacy > filevault
Storage options – too many choices
There are so many storage options available to use now, but which are the safest and most secure? SD cards, for instance, have a known life span of around 100,000 write cycles. You may need back-up for your back-ups!
- USB memory sticks, SD cards, external drives and video tape (DV, HDV) are preferred by activists and videographers in Indonesia.
- Portable, quick to transfer data, cheap, unaffected by magnetic fields and can be stored in high humidity conditions and have been known to survive washing machines.
- Digital tape can be a useful storage option if you have the means. Easily store raw, uncompressed video data, storage is time based, not volume based. However, tape deteriorates in humidity, requiring temperature controlled storage in high humidity conditions.
- Magnetic will eventually break. For long-term storage, use SSD devices (read only, write once) because it does not uses magnetic components, however the price is expensive.
How secure is the cloud?
In September 2011 South Africa's MyVideo lost thousands of of their uses videos due to poor server maintenance and back-ups. GoogleVideo closed its doors early 2011 and countless videos are no longer accessible. In both instances large numbers of people relied on these services to keep their videos accessible in perpetuity. If you don't have reliable data storage of your own, relying on a third party provider can be perilous.
More information