Passwordless SSH logins offer vast security improvements over standard password login. Additionally once setup passwordless logins offer a convenience of not having to enter a password when logging in from the same system.
Formatting a storage device doesn’t prevent the data retrieval with data recovery software. To securely wipe any existing data of the device it needs to be overwritten with new data. This can be achieved very easily with dd on Linux by writing zeros or random values to the device. To avoid wiping the wrong storage device it may be a good idea to first format the disk drive with parted or another command line or GUI utility. Doing this would make it apparent that the wrong device was chosen. Data could still be recovered relativity easily from the formatted storage device compared to a wiped drive.
ownCloud is an open-source, self-hosted cloud service that can be installed on a local or remote server. For better performance and reliability it’s best to host it on a commercial hosting service. Both dedicated and shared web hosting packages will work assuming the service is reasonably feature rich. If reliability is not an issue it can be hosted on a local home server without issues as well.
OpenSSH allows powerful and convenient way to remotely access remote systems. However it creates a possible security weakness which is one reason it is not installed by default. With proper configuration it can be secured and allows the administration of headless servers servers or other devices.
Apache server by default does not have any authentication when accessing web directories. This may be desirable for only locally accessible addresses but would present a security and privacy issue when available externally. If you plant to setup No-IP DDNS on Arch Linux, custom DDNS on Arch Linux or just setup port forwarding on it’s own, it is important to secure all applications that will be accessible externally. Before configuring authentication make sure to install Apache web server.
