Thursday, June 5, 2008

Secure File Storage on Amazon S3

I decided to use Amazon S3 for hosted file storage. I would like to store files using rsync as well as storing Git repositories. Some of this data will be private, so I would like it encrypted while it is stored on S3, but decrypted from the perspective of the tools on my computer. I am planning to access S3 from a number of trusted computers running either Mac OS X or linux.

I found a few ways to mount my S3 space as a filesystem:

  • PersistentFS. Free FUSE filesystem for linux, not sure about Mac OS X.

  • ElasticDrive. FUSE filesystem for linux, Mac OS X not available yet. Free for 5GB, significant price jumps after that and the price is per OS installation. However it is a block device and seems to do much more than I need.

  • s3fs FuseOverAmazon. Free FUSE filesystem for linux and Mac OS X.

  • JungleDisk. Mac OS X and linux support. Commercial, but costs only $20, which includes lifetime updates and can be installed on multiple machines. Supports encryption using 256 bit AES. Optional service at $1 per month that provides block-level file updates and resuming file uploads.
I considered trying an encryption layer (encfs, TrueCrypt) over s3fs, but decided to give JungleDisk a go with the hope that it would be simpler.

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