Just like every other year, we'll be at the LIFT conference in Geneva. From Wednesday to Thursday we'll explore emerging usage of digital technologies by taking part in workshops, listening to great speakers such as Robert Scoble or Brian Solis, and of course connecting to other like-minded people. Let me know if you're also at in Geneva or at the conference itself, we look forward to meeting you!
The Official Wuala Blog. News. Updates. Tips & Tricks.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Wuala at LIFT 11
Just like every other year, we'll be at the LIFT conference in Geneva. From Wednesday to Thursday we'll explore emerging usage of digital technologies by taking part in workshops, listening to great speakers such as Robert Scoble or Brian Solis, and of course connecting to other like-minded people. Let me know if you're also at in Geneva or at the conference itself, we look forward to meeting you!
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Jimmy Wales at the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institut
Yesterday, Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, received the Gottlieb Duttweiler Prize at the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute in Rüschlikon (right next to Zurich). Dominik was among the 300 guests who were invited, and all he brought back was this lousy book... ;-)
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Wuala in Czech!
From now on Wuala is also available in Czech! A big thank you to our Czech translator, Petr Kletečka - we really appreciate your work! Here's a warm welcome to all our Czech users by Petr:Užijte si program Wuala v češtině. Bezpečí pro vaše soubory.
I hope wuala get many satisfied customers from the Czech Republic. I'm using it last half year for backups of my website about juggling http://zonglovani.info (Available only in Czech, but with a lot of pictures) and Wuala works like a charm :)
Monday, January 24, 2011
eZurich Workshop
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Looking for a new challenge? We're hiring!
For us customer service is essential and we strive our best to offer our users a personalized and competent service. In order to ensure this, we are now looking for a Support Specialist to join our team.
Support Specialist (1st and 2nd level)
You simply love to help people: For you it's important that our users are happy. You understand users' needs and resolve their issues with a smile. You are fluent in English and French, and may even speak another language such as Italian, Spanish or Dutch.
Further open positions can be found on our jobs page. We are looking forward to hearing from you!
Support Specialist (1st and 2nd level)
You simply love to help people: For you it's important that our users are happy. You understand users' needs and resolve their issues with a smile. You are fluent in English and French, and may even speak another language such as Italian, Spanish or Dutch.
Further open positions can be found on our jobs page. We are looking forward to hearing from you!
Monday, January 10, 2011
Why Encryption Matters
In this post, I will give you a short introduction into 'client side encryption'. You will learn why 'zero knowledge' is important (Twitter as a recent example) and how you can find out if your online service uses client side encryption. Further, you'll find a short comparison of US and European data protection laws.
Client Side Encryption
Wuala is a 'zero knowledge' service provider. This means that it encrypts all your data already on your PC and your password never leaves your computer (client side encryption). That way, not even we as the operators of Wuala can decrypt your data. Most online storage services handle this differently and have the key to your data. A notable exception that also has 'zero knowledge' encryption is SpiderOak. There are also a number of pure backup services that let you specify a custom encryption key.
The Current Twitter Case
A recent example of why this matters is the subpoena Twitter received from the U.S. government which forced them to hand over customer data. Normally, companies are ordered to keep such subpoenas secret, so not even the affected customers learn about them, but Twitter managed to get an exemption in this case (read the article in the New York Times for more information). Twitter behaved correctly, it had no choice when it handed out the data and it is great that they fought to let their users know about it. But this example shows that when you store data with a service that doesn't have client-side-encryption, you can't be sure that it is safe, even if the company that stores your data is 'nice'.
The 'Password Recovery' Test
If you are unsure if your online storage service is 'zero knowledge', the simplest test is to check if they have a 'reset password' or 'recover password' function. If there is such a function, they can decrypt and access your data. Examples of services that can read your data are DropBox, SugarSync, and box.net. This is nothing unusual, your email provider can read all your emails and Facebook can see everything you upload there. But when it comes to storing sensitive data, you might want to be a little more picky than usual.
Data Protection Laws
Data protection laws are much stronger in Europe than in the U.S. If you care about privacy, you should generally prefer European services. If you are European and intend to store sensitive data online (for example patient records), you might get into legal trouble if you don't choose a storage provider with good encryption. (You can find a German talk about the legal situation in Switzerland here.)
Talk in Zurich
In case you happen to be in Zurich and want to know more about Cloud security, I'll give a talk about this topic on 2010-02-10. Looking forward to seeing you there!
Client Side Encryption
Wuala is a 'zero knowledge' service provider. This means that it encrypts all your data already on your PC and your password never leaves your computer (client side encryption). That way, not even we as the operators of Wuala can decrypt your data. Most online storage services handle this differently and have the key to your data. A notable exception that also has 'zero knowledge' encryption is SpiderOak. There are also a number of pure backup services that let you specify a custom encryption key.
The Current Twitter Case
A recent example of why this matters is the subpoena Twitter received from the U.S. government which forced them to hand over customer data. Normally, companies are ordered to keep such subpoenas secret, so not even the affected customers learn about them, but Twitter managed to get an exemption in this case (read the article in the New York Times for more information). Twitter behaved correctly, it had no choice when it handed out the data and it is great that they fought to let their users know about it. But this example shows that when you store data with a service that doesn't have client-side-encryption, you can't be sure that it is safe, even if the company that stores your data is 'nice'.
The 'Password Recovery' Test
If you are unsure if your online storage service is 'zero knowledge', the simplest test is to check if they have a 'reset password' or 'recover password' function. If there is such a function, they can decrypt and access your data. Examples of services that can read your data are DropBox, SugarSync, and box.net. This is nothing unusual, your email provider can read all your emails and Facebook can see everything you upload there. But when it comes to storing sensitive data, you might want to be a little more picky than usual.
Data Protection Laws
Data protection laws are much stronger in Europe than in the U.S. If you care about privacy, you should generally prefer European services. If you are European and intend to store sensitive data online (for example patient records), you might get into legal trouble if you don't choose a storage provider with good encryption. (You can find a German talk about the legal situation in Switzerland here.)
Talk in Zurich
In case you happen to be in Zurich and want to know more about Cloud security, I'll give a talk about this topic on 2010-02-10. Looking forward to seeing you there!
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