Are the backup services vulnerable to hackers?

Posted by kent on January 5th, 2010

The following post in our Reader Question series is an actual user submitted question.

Q: Are the backup services vulnerable to hackers?

A: With the usual warning that anything is possible, online backup services are pretty secure. Of the many, many stories we see about web services getting hacked, it's not the online back up services that are getting hit. The online backup services employ encryption before your data is sent, and it's sent using SSL (Secure Socket Layer), the same technology that so many of us trust for banking and credit card transactions. Carbonite, for instance, boasts military grade encryption, and it encrypts your files "twice before leaving your computer." The files remain encrypted as they're stored.

Those who are particularly concerned about their data being unencrypted can choose their own encryption key. We talked about that a bit in an earlier blog post.

Of course the best software encryption is only as good as a user's own security practices. This includes choosing a good account password when you sign up, being alert to phishing scams, and having up-to-date Internet security software installed on your machine (to foil keyloggers that could steal your passwords).