> I can't imagine anyone putting data out on the Cloud unless they don't ca=
re who reads it.

The issues affecting how readable unencrypted data is on Dropbox is
fairly well explored both by them and in the several writeups that
have been referenced here.
I'd guesstimate that they do as good a job as most at keeping
unencrypted data safe from themselves. I an happy to save data
unencrypted which has short term relevance and more annoyance than
commercial value issues if it got out.

It seems possible to somewhat increase the security that they offer
against external access by assigning an external  dropbox account to
each folder that is shared so that you need the password for that
account as well as the notional URL of the folder. ie knowing the URL
allows you to try to access it - but you then need the password for
the relevant account for that link. Rather  than N users having N
links for X  folders, N users have one link per folder with the same
password each (or if you insist you can have up to  N.X accounts and
passwords for N users accessing X folders
This seems to reduce the external folder access issue to password
cracking. I don't know if they set an upper limit on password length
but if not a 128 bit random password is liable to deter most brute
force attackers.

Using file syncing with local backups of the synced folder at each
access point, security against loss seems acceptably good. ie I'd
consider it a convenience and a pipe rather than a secure repository.

It seems to me that it would be easy enough for a "stream to flow"
though a dropbox in both directions linking remote systems easily.
This can no doubt be done much more rigorously across the net using
"proper systems" but this seems to offer very easy ad hoc systems to
be built around it.
eg If there is data in your "inbox"  take it out and save it as
prearranged. Send me a message with CRC etc saying you have it.
Even ye olde MSDOS batch files could use this, with the internet link
being utterly invisible to them.


  R
--=20
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