
Backblaze makes it dead simple to backup your files online - raju
http://venturebeat.com/2008/09/16/backblaze-makes-it-dead-simple-to-backup-your-files-online/
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tptacek
Am I the only one who is scared to death of hosted backup services? I'm really
meant to be OK with having my email spools and document directories on some
startup's server?

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j2d2
I'm with you on this one. This must be a very hard hurdle for hosting based
startups.

Perhaps on of the github guys could comment?

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budmang
I'm the CEO of Backblaze and certainly understand your concern about hosting
your data with a startup. We do encrypt your data using AES encryption, your
data is stored in the 365 Main datacenters (where Cnet, Sun, etc.) are
located, and you can put your own private key on the data. This is also not
our first company - Excite@Home, SonicWALL, and Thomson Financial purchased
the last ones...and they obviously cared a lot about security of the data.
Hope we can help you backup your code and computers.

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tptacek
I realize you're the CEO, and that the marketing language you're using is
probably effective for your normal customers, but:

"Encrypted using AES" doesn't mean anything. Plenty of full-disk encryption
products failed because of key management problems. More importantly, your
literature doesn't document how you actually use AES --- for instance, is it
ECB mode, which allows for random access but also for plaintext blocks to be
copied and shuffled? How do you authenticate the data? If someone breaks into
your servers and flips the right bit in my ciphertext, can she make binary
integers decrypt to wildly large numbers that can break my software?

More importantly, how does your backup agent software work? What messages does
it send back and forth to your servers? Do I need to worry that a program
you've installed on my machine with access to all my files has bugs where an
attacker who can corrupt the DNS can run code on my machine, or access my
files? How do you update your software?

Nobody gets any of this stuff right anywhere in any setting, and backup is the
most sensitive IT task you can perform.

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sabat
Mozy is cheaper and more proven. And works on the Mac as well as Windows.

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budmang
Mozy is also a good solution. It's actually the same price ($5/mo), but most
users say it is harder to use (since it doesn't just backup all data) and that
it slows down your computer when it kicks off it's daily backup.

