Kim Dotcom's back with a new 50GB free storage service: Mega | Hacker News Reader

Kim Dotcom's back with a new 50GB free storage service: Mega

zdnet.com

57 pointsCrankyBear35 comments

Assuming this actually works, it's an attempt to execute the plan in cryptonomicon -- secure data storage immune to government inspection.

Dropbox could, of course, have implemented something similar if it weren't trying to do deduplication. Assuming you are doing deduplication, it would be neat to be able to -- say -- insert a DVD into your dropbox-based DVD ripper and discover the operation had completed instantly...

At least they miserably failed load testing etc. Site was practically completely down for the first 24 hours. At least in EU area. They also failed to send emails about their service being opened (they did collect addresses etc.) So I would say they failed on multiple fronts.

That's one definition of a failure, but it could just as well be a definition of a raging success.

If more people want to buy tickets to a concert than number of available seats, is the concert then a failure?

If the resultant crowd cancels the concert for everybody? Yeah, probably.

Oh really? So this is not the same as the ten posts before were about?

It is the same, but it seams that people are so excited about it that all articles about it are getting upvoted to the front page.

Did you say the same about the links related to Aaron Swartz?

I think everyone is expecting MPAA&friends (FBI, ICE, etc) to watch Mega. But there isn't much they can do about it when it comes to private sharing, so from that point of view it's a lot more secure than Google Drive, Dropbox, Rapidshare, etc.

As for public sharing, nothing has really changed, because you need to give your password for the file to be accessible, and it's possible MPAA&friends will look into the more high-profile ones by using the passwords, and demand them to be taken down.

Do they disguise metadata as well? File size, name, and directory layout would be more than enough to identify particular files (or at least enough to obtain a warrant to force mega to push trojan client software).

I'm sure they've considered this but if someone has seen an article or post analyzing the client side encryption I'd love to read it.

Yep. They don't even know the file names.

You don't need the password to share a file, you can create a special link that contains the key for that file.

So has anybody been able to actually use Megaconz (i love the ironic name, btw)? My 70kb image upload's been pending for hours and the ENTIRE site is unusable while an upload is pending. I could have flew the fucking jpeg to New Zealand already. I guess i can speculate that the thing is either getting slammed with traffic or the release didn't go well.

I don't think it's an ironic name, to be honest. .co.nz is just a New Zealand TLD.

>I could have flew the fucking jpeg to New Zealand already

Score: 5, Humor

> "That said, Mega's also claims that their service saves room on its over-burdened servers by keeping a single copy of identical files How do they do that if they don't know their users' password? Good question. We don't know the answer."

Can anyone shed some light on how this might be possible, given the files are encrypted?

We've kinda been over this ad nauseam. It may be convergent encryption.

what is convergent encryption?

Really?

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convergent_encryption)

(http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=convergent+...)

etc etc.

Do you have a more specific question, because there are people on HN who can answer it.

Since the same plaintext produces the same ciphertext with different passwords dosn't it expand the search space for a possible attacker?

If it is convergent encryption, though, a rights holder can still check if their content is being uploaded and send out takedown notices and then it's Rapidshare all over again. Not saying that it's the users/market Mega crowd is going after.

Block level deduplication?

> That said, Mega's also claims that their service saves room on its over-burdened servers by keeping a single copy of identical files How do they do that if they don't know their users' password? Good question. We don't know the answer.

How can they do this and still keep information about the file unavailable?

Googled for encrypted de-duplication: http://www.ssrc.ucsc.edu/Papers/storer-storagess08.pdf

This shows up in the JS console when trying to do anything non-cachable:

POST https://eu.api.mega.co.nz/cs?id=01234567 500 (Server Too Busy)

Has anyone got something uploaded? I'm curious how the downloading actually works. Do they still use the original monetization scheme, i.e. pay to get faster transfer?

That image they got on their site, that appears while the app is loading, with the cloud and the gears is practically the same one that stripe has on their website.

Virtually every site/app uses that same shape, or its mirror image, for "cloud" icons. You'd be hard pressed to say who's copying whom.

That comment you got there is practically the same as in the previous Mega thread: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5084753

It's still completely broken for me. I'm getting 500 Server Too Busy even on the initial load. When it loaded before, I couldn't upload anything.

MegaUpload, with a new skin? Seems like the same general business.

Not at all, there's built-in protection against the type of takedown that occurred last time.

Please read the article before commenting on something.

It's like megaupload, but more space, client-side file encryption/decryption, and no video streaming service (right now).

It is also different in that it seems to be completely non-functional. Well I guess that makes it unlike megaupload was but entirely like it is now.

Completely different features & implementation.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com