Online backup

[ashishtx]

With the advent of falling storage prices and increasing bandwidth, everybody seems to offer online backup. I want to know which online backup service do you all prefer?


There are many more services but these are just the few that come to my mind at these moment.

[chrisretusn]

I did not vote. No option for None. I do not use an on-line backup service. All backups are done locally.

[noone_particular]

No vote here either. I've spent too much time securing my PC and keeping my personal data private. I'm not going to just upload it to some online storage group I don't know. Even if it's encrypted, you're putting a lot of faith in an encryption program, its implementation, and the algorithym itself by putting it in a situation over which you have no control.

[jrmhng]

-{ Quote: "No vote here either. I've spent too much time securing my PC and keeping my personal data private. I'm not going to just upload it to some online storage group I don't know. Even if it's encrypted, you're putting a lot of faith in an encryption program, its implementation, and the algorithym itself by putting it in a situation over which you have no control." }-
What do you use to keep your data safe? You have to trust someone with your data. Even if you use an encryption program like Truecrypt, then you have to trust truecrypt developers for example.

[ashishtx]

I truly agree about the security concern with respect to data but we use email and do bank transactions online/inperson. I always thought email as a form of storage which sends data/message. Aren't we trusting them? some people do encrypt email but majority of us don't. We certainly don't have to use online storage/backup but i think if we use internet we are using it in one form or other.

[noone_particular]

My data stays local. Data that's important gets backed up to a separate drive or external media. With online storage, you give up the ability to control access to your data.

I basically trust the encryption software I use, but I also recognize that nothing is 100% secure. When describing something as secure, two variables always figure in.
1, Secure against who?
2, for how long?

With online storage, "Who" can be anyone or everyone. You don't know. In todays political climate, making obvious use of encryption draws attention to you. It wouldn't surprise me at all to learn that the NSA keeps tract of all encrypted data stored online and lists the owners as "people of interest".

With online storage, the 2nd variable, "for how long" becomes unlimited. Even if encrypted, the data can be copied and subjected to almost unlimited attempts to brute force it open. The potential to brute force it open is increasing as processing power increases. Some very formidable cracking power is commercially available now. http://www.elcomsoft.com/edpr.html

With online storage, you have no ability to monitor or control attempts to access your data. You're relying on a single piece of software and your password/passphrase to protect it. IMO, relying on one piece of software to protect your data is not a sound security policy, no matter how good that software is.

[ashishtx]

It is true that encryption protects the data but only for certain amount of time. I would not store very private data online but there are certain things which can be stored online. As a student i store my notes,pictures,music files and school project related files. This allows me to access them online. I don't think (99.99% ) someone will buy a software to decrypt it or even if they do what do they gain? It depends on what one stores and how?

[TOMxEU]

Same for me, I store only common files on windows skydrive (50GB), but as for private files, I keep them on my USB key, close to my hearth, in a pocket. ;D

[Minimax2000]

I would never entrust online services with storing my sensitive data.:thumbd:

[ThunderZ]

Off line in home only.

[Capp]

RemoteDataBackups (http://www.remotedatabackups.com/p/?id=Capp-Ware)

Definitely the best backup utility I've ever used. Not very expensive, works great for home or corporate use, very easy to use and setup.

RDB is owned by IronMountain, which is one of the industry leading companies in data storage and security.

Plus, you can do a full free 30-Day trial with ease.

[edit] I forgot to mention, all the data is compressed and encrypted with a key created by the end user. And it backs up every night every file that has changed. It allows you to access your backed up files anywhere in the world via the internet as well, so you can restore them to a different computer if needed too.
I could go on and on about the awesome features it has, but I'll let you decide for yourself.
If anybody wants a white paper over it, let me know and I'll be happy to give you more info.

[Hiker]

I recently signed up with www.adrive.com 50gigs free.

I only plan on using it for photos and music for when I travel without my laptop. After uploading from home, I'll be able to change out and download music for my mp3 player and upload photos and vids from public computers in libraries and such.

My OS, programs and data are backed-up to external hard drives.

[djohn]

Offline Home only on portable External HDD.

[YeOldeStonecat]

I built a server that we host online backup on, for our clients.
Using a package you can purchase called RBackup.

If I open our server cabinet and log onto this server, I cannot see my clients data..it's protected by blowfish encryption..and they have the key for it.

[TechOutsider]

Used to use N360 online backup.

After I stopped using N360, I just backup to my external disc; online ones are clumsy and slow.

[Ed_H]

I have used both Mozy and IDrive. Both work well but IDrive seems to have consistently faster upload speeds.

[TonyW]

Some people think of using an online backup service as added insurance in case their external hard drive goes belly up. If that failed, you'd lose your data, but you could still restore from elsewhere such as one of these services.

Of course, the same could be said of online backup. Either way, there is that risk.