Data is priceless, pay more attention.

Backup & Syncing

Maintain data under a dedicated directory, using folders to sort, then syncing to other storage devices or computers periodically.

To syncing data to other storage devices, use FreeFileSync (Linux/Win/Mac) or rsync(1) command (Linux/Mac) or just copy and paste.

rsync -aP --del source_dir/ target_dir

Options description:

  • -a recurse into directories, keep symlinks, preserve permission, modification time, etc.
  • -P show progress during transfer.
  • --del   remove files which are no longer exist in the sourse directory.

If "target_dir" doesn’t exists, it will be created automatically.

There’s difference about "source_dir" between “with trailing slash” and “without trailing slash”. Without trailing slash, the result will be a subfolder like "target_dir/source_dir".

To syncing data to other computers, use Syncthing.

Password Manager

Use a password manager to manage web accounts, generate different random long passwords for each. If you use same password for all accounts, one account leaks, all other accounts would be at risks.

KeePass is an open source offline password manager, it’s encrypted "kdbx" file becomes a sort of standard, there are several third-party apps offer cross-platform support and useful features which better than the official one.

KeePassXC (Linux/Win/Mac) , KeePassDX (Android) , Strongbox (iOS)

Backup the ".kdbx" file with caution.

SIM Lock

SIM card has a built-in lock, if enabled, you need to unlock it with passcode when powering on the device or inserting to a running one, no longer need to worry that your number be exploited when losing your phone.

To enable simlock, you need to set a 4-8 digits PIN code for unlocking. The SIM card would be disabled if you type wrong PIN code for 3 times. Before enabling simlock, you must get PUK code first, it can be used to reset SIM card’s status, in case of forgetting the PIN code. You can find PUK code from the larger piece of the card which wrapping the SIM card or asking from the mobile service provider if the larger piece is losing, then save it to the password manager.

Disk Encryption

Ref: Disk Encryption - Wikipedia

Encrypting disk and system can prevent data from being extracted when computer is lost or under maintenance, it needs to be unlocked with password to read and write.

Different operating systems provide different tools to accomplish this task, for Linux, it’s LUKS - Wikipedia, for Windows, it’s BitLocker - Wikipedia.

Sounds hard, right ? But it’s worth learning.