Online Backup - Who Can Access My Data?

In the previous post we looked at encryption systems for online backup services. We saw that the AES 256-bit encryption standard, used by the best online backup services such as Back Up Solutions, provides the highest possible level of security.

So what are the implications of this for backing up your own data? When you sign up to one of these online backup services, you are provided with a decryption key - a complex password - or you may be asked to compose your own. If you are provided with a key it will be computer-generated, and the staff at the online backup service will NOT have access to it. This means that NOBODY can access your data except yourself. You must of course find a secure place to keep your decryption password - probably NOT where you keep your computer - so that you can be sure you can find it when you need it, even if your computer is destroyed in a fire or some other disaster.

You may ask - what about hackers who may target the data center itself? It is generally agreed that the algorithm used for this level of encryption is sufficiently complex to make it virtually impossible for a hacker to break it. Remember that it is used by the US government to encrypt its TOP SECRET classified information!

But it does depend on you being very careful to make sure your key doesn't fall into the wrong hands!

Online Backup - How is My Data Protected?

In an earlier post we discussed some worries that you might have about online backup. One question was - how can I be sure that my data is kept confidential? We briefly explained that any good online backup service will ENCRYPT your data.

If you look at the Back Up Solutions site you will see the statement "Our files are 256-bit AES encrypted before being uploaded." What on earth does this mean?

Well I am not a techie so I don't understand the technicalities of encryption algorithms, but AES stands for "Advanced Encryption Standard". It is a symmetric key encryption technique which was accredited by the US government as the standard to which all encryptions must comply. The US government has confirmed that AES is secure enough to protect classified information up to TOP SECRET level - that is, it is the standard which the government itself uses to protect its MOST SENSITIVE information!

The AES algorithm uses one of three cipher key strengths: 128-bit, 192-bit or 256-bit. The larger the number of "bits", the more complex the algorithm used to scramble the data, so the more difficult it is for a hacker to get in.

So the encryption level used by Back Up Solutions is the highest level of security you can get! If it's good enough for the US government to protect its most top-level secret information, it's probably good enough to protect your data and mine!

More about this in the next post.