[jqp]

Would you use an online backup service? It seems crazy to me to put even remotely personal data on someone else's harddrive. Maybe I am being too paranoid, but the fact is, once it's out there you have no control over it.

Putting personal pictures on the web is bad enough - just last night I went to a myspace page (not mine) I had bookmarked several months ago. Not too much had changed, but some public profiles were offered for view - I clicked on one that had pictures from Cancun, and here were pictures from a young lady, inebriated and posing provocatively (along with her tamer pictures) that she would definitely not want her future school/boss to google!

Yet these commercials are on TV and radio every day encouraging people to put their data on the web, even business data! Where is the outrage 

[JohnR]

What does myspace have to do with online backup services?

I think any reasonable service provider will have much better security than most people have at home.

[jqp]

Myspace or Facebook is an example of losing control at a certain level, assuming you have placed photos there that you later wish you had not.

Its not so much "micro-security" but "macro security". Myspace has passwords so I can't monkey with someones account and place pictures on someones myspace page, or can I, if I can engage in hacking/social engineering. But we have learned that just because you close down your account, those pictures do not necessarily stay off of other sites on the web, and actually do not belong to you. They have changed their terms of service but whats to say they can't change the terms to say almost anythning they want them to say? It's hard to put humpty dumpty back together again once the fall occurs.

Maybe it a bit of a stretch, but Myspace is like an online backup service in some ways - particularly if you use it to store your goofy pictures - in this case your data may not be precious but you are relying on the service to keep your data. It is just an example that illustrates a couple of ideas about vulnerability of your data. But what about the security of a dedicated online backup service? Is it really better than putting your data on a writable disk or two and putting one at a friend's house?

I am just amazed when I hear "Put your business data on our website - now you have easy access to data you may want at home, at a meeting. etc." This proably violates the security policy of most businesses with any information policy. But what happens to your data if the company goes bankrupt, get hacked into, hires a curious college student? Is it any different than taking your computer to the "GeekSkwad", and oh I forgot all that data is on there I hope they don't look at it. Having worked in many environments where security violations = a trip out the door, someone will box up your stuff for you, I guess there is less critical data that you don't need to worry about. I could never trust my data, my friends data, my company data to strangers. And have you ever wondered when those trucks pick up all that paper to shred, does anyone ever get curious? Too much caffein is rattlingt my tin foil hat I guess...We live in times when technical sites debate how to best destroy old hard drives, but people are naively putting their companies data on some site without their company knowing about it!  

[jqp]

I think any reasonable service provider will have much better security than most people have at home.

People in my part of the US have a knack for starting companies that have less than high standards 

Large banks, car dealerships, whitewater rafting centers, rail lines, charities, condo tower projects...

Also, I think it is the "straw-man" fallacy you have committed - most people have no backups for which to have security  

[JohnR]

Having backups is generally considered to be part of security.

I'm really not sure of what you're saying now - like anything, it's up to you to weigh up the pros and cons of using them. Such as the fact that they are automated and can be done as frequently as you like. AC uses an online backup service, if I were running a small to medium sized business, I would use one, and the only reason I'm not using one for my personal files is that I haven't gotten around to setting it up.

As for using one in violation of your employer's IT policies, I rather doubt that that is the intent of the marketing you reference.

[lonewolfny42]

Don't know if it's any good or not....
.....but this company has many ads on the radio.

http://www.carbonite.com/

[JohnR]

Their unlimited data allowance is a red flag to me. Managing and moving around large quantities of data does cost money, I would be concerned that an incident of some kind would knock the service out (having had exactly that experience).

[Wind Chaser]

Sounds like a nice way to fish.  Reminds me of a story I saw in the news last night...  A popular bar in Calgary will not allow anyone entrance into their establishment without first scanning their drivers license.  They call it security based on the assumption that undesirables would prefer to remain anonymous.  A judge ruled against this procedure as a violation of privacy, but the owner are appealing to a higher court.

[JohnR]

Fish? Are you serious? 

[Wind Chaser]

Identity theft in Canada is serious issue.  I don't know what can all be gained from just a drivers license, but if ones social insurance number is compromised, that alone can open the gates wide to all kinds of problems.  I never volunteer any personal information unless absolutely necessary.  Too many horror stories to ignore the issue.  How much of a problem it is in other countries I don't know, but the media keeps tabs on the issue here quite regularly.

I would think most people keep way too much personal information on their HD to allow someone else to store it for them.  Hard drives along with other forms of digital storage are so cheap now that offering an online storage service hardly a viable idea.

[jqp]

Their unlimited data allowance is a red flag to me. Managing and moving around large quantities of data does cost money, I would be concerned that an incident of some kind would knock the service out (having had exactly that experience).

You are making my point here

You are thinking in terms of a professional backup service for business - I am referring to something advertised for a home or small business user which can and will be operated by anyone who decides to be a "backup service".

As you have seen, even business class services can be unreliable.

And the biggest boys are not as reliable as they should be:

Google software bug shared private online documents

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.54c3200989573ae4c9282658f91276df.481&show_article=1

[JohnR]

Well, I think you're still mixing up different things here. Google Docs is not running a backup service - it's designed to allow sharing of documents, which is not something that you would normally want for your confidential backups...

In the end, I guess you get what you pay for. If backups are only worth $50 a year to you, or you get them as an add-on bundled with some other service (such as the incident I referred to), then expecting top-tier security and reliability might be a little optimistic. Personally, I think the move to online services of all kinds is inevitable, and dealing with the issues that arise is merely "the price of progress." i don't see how it's much different from the myriad other things that we don't do ourselves any more.

One thing I have learned though (in case you're interested) is that you will get the best results from specialists. Email, web hosting, server rental, DNS, backups - find the best deal in each of these and avoid "all in one" setups. The free addons are often worth about what you paid for them...

Having said all that, I suspect that the majority of people will just move to online services when it comes with the operating system. My Windows and Mac computers all update their OS automatically - just a few years ago, that wouldn't have been feasible. I don't think it will be that long before remote storage is simply part of the picture of owning a computer.

[jqp]

A backup service is not the same thing as a document management system but the technologies are the same or similar such that inferences can be made - storage, access controls, availability, etc.

I agree that a specialist should be more reliable but I think at the home user-level all bets are off.

An online service that comes with an OS image on a laptop can have financial problems like any other company.

the basics seem to me to be
-Make a backup
-Make redundant backups
-Store the backups separately from the data
-Store the backups offsite from the data
-High availability requires a local backup

these levels can be performed automatically, but security in and out of the PC as well as at the remote site is key.

[JohnR]

An online service that comes with an OS image on a laptop can have financial problems like any other company.

Oh - I meant that it would be provided by the same company i.e. Microsoft or Apple. Just speculating, of course...

[Niteshade]

Being in the computer business and around this sort of thing, I would suggest getting an external USB hard drive. Along with that, get a USB 'thumb' drive around  2-8gb's in capacity. Your external hard drive should not be any larger than 500gb. The larger drives can be unreliable.

Do you backups before slowness sets in (PC Users). I know you Mack folks don't get as many (if any) viruses...but DO NOT wait until the computer becomes slow or unreliable to do your backups.

Online backups can take a long, long time. Unless you have a cable modem or something else in that speed range, don't even bother with them. telephone DSL is way too slow.

[Watson]

I use JungleDisk, which uses Amazon's S3 as its datastore. JungleDisk encrypts the data on your machine before uploading, so no one else ever has a readable version of your data.

I wish I could back up my whole hard disk this way, but the Internet is too slow to transfer a whole hard drive up to the cloud, so I only do important files. Still, it's nice to have, as it prevents me worrying about my house burning down or getting broken into and losing my ZFS server with my main backups, and it's less hassle than rotating hard drives to a safety deposit box every so often.

Everyone should have some form of off-site backup.

[JohnR]

JungleDisk encrypts the data on your machine before uploading, so no one else ever has a readable version of your data.

Good solution. My own employer is installing encryption on all laptop drives.