[LINK] Microsoft One Drive

[Stephen Loosley]

David, as everyone on Link will surely agree, your kind Link response is certainly thought-provoking, quite likely helpful and indeed well-considered.

Must admit, we were also having reservations regarding joining One Drive now, after the fact, and for exactly the reasons you also have. Linking any of our files they may have with a new membership?

Now, having spent time looking at the damage, turns out many of our obviously graphics named/labelled hard-drive directories (both video and still) have lost most/all their files. In other words, it looks as if specific targeting was employed. Some directories even contain a few newly placed files, often with odd file-names.

So, we now agree that targeted hacking is sounding more and more likely. Strange though, being very careful, it’s our first ever somewhat obvious hack-attack, if it is. Why us?

As per your suggestions, we will certainly follow through and will keep Link informed. As always, all Link opinion is much appreciated, and truly, thank you David 😊


From: David<mailto:dlochrin at aussiebb.com.au>
Sent: Thursday, 17 August 2023 9:56 AM
To: Stephen Loosley<mailto:stephenloosley at outlook.com>; link at mailman.anu.edu.au<mailto:link at mailman.anu.edu.au>; Karl Auer<mailto:kauer at biplane.com.au>
Subject: Re: [LINK] Microsoft One Drive

On 16/08/2023 17:27, Stephen Loosley wrote:

Sigh .. this morning one wakes up to 80-90% and four or five years of our saved Text & Graphic files now GONE from our Windows laptop? Without a warning, and without either our knowledge, or permission, Windows have apparently moved (or hidden) our files onto One Drive?

Stephen, what exactly makes you think they've been moved to One-Drive?  If you're not registered for the service and this happened as a result of human error at Microsoft, it's probably happened to many people and I imagine it would be front-page news by now.

Whatever you do, creating a one-drive account might be risky and of doubtful value because your files (assuming that's where they've gone) may not be associated with the newly-created account; it's even possible some malicious actor is running a One-Drive porting fraud similar to the current mobile fraud.

Does Windows automatically create system backups similar to Snapper on Linux which you can fall back to??


Some of the missing files are professionally made and irreplacable. They’re professionally made and produced historic arial drone geographical records. We can’t loose them! So, looks like our next step is to create a One Drive Account, log into it, and see if they are there, I guess. Can’t think of what else we can readily do? But, don’t want Microsoft believing they’ve won!
Would they be of special (e.g. political) interest to any group?

I'd suggest contacting the Aust. Cyber Security Centre to see if they know anything.  It might also be worth 'phoning your ISP too to see if there was a sudden surge in network traffic, e.g. are you unexpectedly close to your download limit?

And I'd follow Karl's  suggestion to remove the hard-drive immediately and send it to an expert for investigation.  But don't turn it on!!

It's probably time to review your network security.  I haven't looked at this for some time, but I suspect most of the cheaper domestic "router / firewall" suppliers strike a compromise between high security and minimal support costs which leaves systems way too vulnerable.  Games, video-conferencing, WiFi network ports, Bluetooth, etc. etc... which are on by default are all potential entry points since many require asynchronous IP network connections initiated externally.  Older versions of Windows weren't much better IMHO.

On 16/08/2023 18:37, Karl Auer wrote:
Well - definitely look around on your locally connected drives first. One false drag-n-drop could be to blame. If you have a good idea how much free disk space you had yesterday, comparing it with how much you have today might give you a clue as to whether the files are really gone.
Oddly enough, something very similar happened to me recently, but I came to the conclusion the missing files had vanished because I'd been interrupted or lost track of where I was up to in a complicated bit of directory & user-account shuffling.  Recovering is tedious if the problem isn't recognised for some time, but possible!

Please tell us how it goes...

David Lochrin