Storing Important Documents Electronically?

[stealth]

Do any of you store documents electronically? Such as T4's, bank documents, etc...

I brought this question up on 780 and it seems like everyone is still doing it the old fashion way, by filing them in a drawer or folder.

I still do it this way, but have been thinking of scanning them and placing them on a USB thumb drive.

Is there anyway of encrypting the files, or making sure they are not "stolen".

[schocker]

I keep the paper ones I have in a folder, but the digital ones like the completed tax documents that you print at the end of doing quick tax I save and password protect them in an archive and have them on dropbox.

[Kinjou]

Use Truecrypt. It's free and open source. The algorithm can't even be cracked by the FBI so don't forget the password. You have a few options when using truecrypt, you can create a secure volume that you can then mount using the program. Or you can encrypt an entire partition and store files that way (either using a hard drive or USB stick). For convenience, I use the secure volume method but for my other security work, I use an encrypted partition. Runs on Windows, Linux and Mac OS. You can specify the size of the volume you create. Since it's only one file, it'll be easy to transport if needed. Just make sure you don't forget the password to mount the volume/partition or else you're screwed. lol.

http://www.truecrypt.org/

A story on how secure it is.. http://news.techworld.com/security/3228701/fbi-hackers-fail-to-crack-truecrypt/

[GoChris]

I scan almost all documents to a PDF, and withing Adobe Reader you can encrypt the document. So I do that with a password. Then they are stored on a NAS.

[rage2]

I scan, encrypt and store all important docs on the cloud now. The originals goes in a safety deposit box.

[Tik-Tok]

I keep my taxes in a box, and have a USB drive with a list of all my serialized possessions in case of theft, and keep that at work.

Other than that, I don't have any important papers, lol. At least nothing I can't get a copy of from the source (ie bank statements, insurance documents, etc.)

[RedDawn]

Does anyone know if the CCRA will accept electronic documents as proof during an audit? For instance, if I scan all my stock transaction slips issued by my broker into PDFs and dump the originals, will the CCRA accept the electronic copies if they audit me? Given the ease with which electronic documents could be faked, I can see why they would only accept original documents. Anyone know the answer or experienced this first hand?

[stealth]

Thanks for the info guys.

[Tomaz]

My company is now offering Electronic Pay Statements & Tax Forms (T4, T4A, T4/R1) stored through ePost. Has anyone used this before? Thoughts?

[black_2.5RS]

Originally posted by Kinjou
Use Truecrypt. It's free and open source. The algorithm can't even be cracked by the FBI so don't forget the password. You have a few options when using truecrypt, you can create a secure volume that you can then mount using the program. Or you can encrypt an entire partition and store files that way (either using a hard drive or USB stick). For convenience, I use the secure volume method but for my other security work, I use an encrypted partition. Runs on Windows, Linux and Mac OS. You can specify the size of the volume you create. Since it's only one file, it'll be easy to transport if needed. Just make sure you don't forget the password to mount the volume/partition or else you're screwed. lol.

http://www.truecrypt.org/

A story on how secure it is.. http://news.techworld.com/security/3228701/fbi-hackers-fail-to-crack-truecrypt/

Do this. I do forensic investigation work in Calgary and to send files back and forth between offices, it must be TrueCrypted in case it gets lost in transit.

[Feruk]

Originally posted by Tomaz
My company is now offering Electronic Pay Statements & Tax Forms (T4, T4A, T4/R1) stored through ePost. Has anyone used this before? Thoughts?
Been using it for 2 years. I really like it. Easy to access anywhere and no hassle of tons of paper.