SecureBackup 3.1 - File Archiving Support

We are happy to announce the release of SecureBackup 3.1 which adds a new file archiving capability to our online file storage service. This new feature allows you to set a desired level of retention for your backup files and works on a per-backup-job basis. In other words, for each backup job you create, you can now tell SecureBackup to automatically retain anywhere from zero to nine older copies of your backup files. When SecureBackup detects a change in your file, it will automatically create an archive of the older copy and begin to backup the newer file immediately.

Each archive file is marked with a “{archive-TIMESTAMP}” extension and is also highlighted with an orange background within the “Restore Files” window of the SecureBackup software. This way you can easily see that they are archives of the original. The TIMESTAMP takes the form of the year as 4 digits, followed by 2 digits each for the month, day, hour, and minute of the original backup date. The filename of the archive will have the date and time appended right onto the filename so that you can easily distinguish when that file was originally backed up.

A file storage solution that allows for multiple levels of archives comes in handy. For example, when you accidentally delete data within a document you are working on, it would be nice to be able to restore an older file version that you have archived of which contains the data you accidentally deleted. I’m sure many of us have accidently destroyed something we were working on and wished we had an older copy lying around!

Storing older versions of files is now a completely automated and painless process with the SecureBackup software but it does require that you are using SecureBackup PRO. The SecureBackup HOME edition does not provide this feature. The more archives that you retain, the more backup space you will need. Using archive levels was therefore considered as a feature for customers who are paying for a dedicated amount of space such as those who are using SecureBackup PRO.

With SecureBackup PRO, you can now retain multiple copies of your backup files with ease. The new file archiving feature allows you to backup up to nine older copies of your files. And as always, the SecureBackup software is free and there is no additional charge to existing customers to upgrade to SecureBackup 3.1.

SecureBackup Website

We started our Search Engine Optimization (SEO) campaign in early March 2009 and are pleased to see that we are currently ranking in the top 3 for online backup, secure online backup, online data backup, secure online data backup, secure online file storage, and online data storage. There are probably some other terms that we rank well for but I haven’t looked.

Marketing an online backup business in this day and age is not always cheap or easy to do but we are pleased with the results so far. Nothing is guaranteed in the world of SEO, page rank, position, or Alexa Pagerank. And our rankings will fluctuate with time so this is, of course, an ongoing effort. Just got a little excited to see how well we are ranking these days and wanted to share it.

New Online Backup Servers

There is a new and exciting thing happening here at SecureBackup LLC and I wanted to share it with everyone.

We are planning on providing all customers with RAID redundant online backup servers. We are going to accomplish this by building, maintaining, and co-locating our own backup servers at a data center in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Currently we are leasing dedicated servers from a data center in Houston, TX. While this has been a great solution so far, it has somewhat limited us in terms of our online backup service offerings. We know we can offer a better service by building and maintaining our own servers.

We have been very pleased with the initial test results of our new online backup servers. Because of the fact that we can now choose our own server parts, we will soon be able to better monitor the health of our servers, anticipate and prevent problems, as well as provide RAID redundancy.

Monitoring servers is an important task in the world of online backup server administration. By monitoring things such as fan speeds, CPU temperatures, and hard drive errors, you can anticipate potential problems down the road and take corrective action to prevent it. Our new server grade motherboards provide built-in support for monitoring certain aspects of system health.

We will be able to determine if a hard drive is failing and can replace it before it happens. And because we will be building RAID redundant backup servers, if one drive actually fails, the data will still be secured on a secondary drive.

One of the methods that we will be using for monitoring hard drives is called S.M.A.R.T. monitoring. With S.M.A.R.T. monitoring we will be able to better predict potential drive failure and can take corrective action immediately. S.M.A.R.T. monitoring isn’t a bullet proof solution and a hard drive can fail without warning but it is a good first line of defense.

In addition to S.M.A.R.T. monitoring, we will also be able to monitor the health of our drives with our new RAID configurations. We are planning on using RAID-1 mirroring for our new servers. This will not only alert us of a failing drive, but will provide redundancy if that drive actually fails.

RAID-1 is our method of choice. While RAID-5 is great for storing multi-terabytes of data, the best choice for online backup with multiple GB of data is still RAID-1.

We look forward to deploying our new online backup servers and offering RAID redundancy to all SecureBackup customers. We will issue an official press release when we roll out the new servers.

We have recently distributed the SecureBackup™ online backup software to several websites for review purposes and have been very pleased with the results. The SecureBackup™ software consistently received the highest rating of 5 out of 5 stars.

SecureBackup™ Wins Multiple 5-Star Awards!

As you can see, we have numerous awards that we could place on our website to proudly display our winning status but it would take up quite a bit of space. Therefore, we have decided to place our entire collection of award winning images on this page.

The most notable award that we received came from Tucows. Tucows is one of the largest software download sites on the web and is recognized as an authority on software reviews. They did a very thorough review of our backup software and awarded SecureBackup™ with their highest rating!

We are pleased to have received such great ratings. SecureBackup™ was designed to not only be easy to use, but also to be the most secure online backup solution available on the market today.

View a demo of SecureBackup™ or sign-up right now and start backing up your files today!

New SecureBackup Website

We have just released a new website and hope you like it. We will be continuing to add content not only to the website but also to the Online Backup blog. We are quite pleased with the overall design and made it a point to put the words “Secure Online Backup Service” on every web page as this was not apparently clear in our old design. We also provide a link to the demo of our secure online backup service on every page of our new website. If there’s one thing we are consistently asked it’s “how does your backup solution work?” or “do you provide an automatic online backup solution?” These are the kinds of questions that we wanted to address in our overall site design by providing links to content pages and to the SecureBackup demo.

The old SecureBackup website also suffered from a lack of information regarding the SecureBackup PRO and HOME editions. We wanted to differentiate our offerings for both our home and business pro data backup solutions. We also wanted our website logo to be consistent with our software and service and were able to accomplish that as well.

A large majority of our visitors are using the Firefox web browser so we wanted to make sure that the SecureBackup website supported both Firefox and Internet Explorer. There will be more to come in terms of website improvements but we think that our overall design is much better and more accurately reflects the backup services that we provide.

Secure Online Backup

It’s been a while since I posted in reference to my “Secure Online Backup” series. In my, “What Makes an Online Backup Solution, Secure?” post I wanted to address the need to keep servers patched, so here it goes.

Patches are an important part of server reliability and security. There are two types of patches that should be installed as soon as they become available. This is especially true for servers that are “serving” information over the Internet. The first type of patch that we should be concerned about is one that fixes errors within the software running on the server. A particular piece of software could have some issues that keep it from functioning properly. If it crashes or has a memory leak or some other type of issue, it may affect the server somehow. This is less common with modern servers today but could still be an issue for software that doesn’t deal with memory leaks properly. Probably the most important reason for patching software is that it may be tied in with a service that is “served” over the Internet. This is especially true on Linux. So patching software is an important part of server reliability.

The second type of patch that we need to be concerned with are security patches. A security patch fixes a known vulnerability or exploit. Often times, these patches are created in response to a known threat. This means that a server may not always be 100% secure due to the fact that a malicious party may know about the exploit before anything is ever done to resolve it. As previously stated, software companies often release security patches *after* a known vulnerability or exploit has been discovered. It is good practice to install security patches immediately.

In addition to security patches, it is often desirable to have a server that only serves a limited number of services. For example, a backup server only needs to provide the necessary services to allow backups to be performed. If it starts providing additional services, such as email for example, the server will also need to maintain patches for its email services. This can make the server less secure due to the fact that more potential vulnerabilities and exploits can be used to gain unauthorized access.

The SecureBackup backup servers only “serve” data backup services. This makes the service as secure as it can be in terms of vulnerabilities and exploits.

Online Backup Service

SecureBackup, a premier online backup firm, recently announced discounts for clients that wish to be billed on a recurring annual basis.

Canastota, NY — April 9, 2009 — Premier online backup firm, SecureBackup LLC, recently announced that it will be offering discounts for clients that wish to be billed on a recurring annual basis. The company now provides twelve months of service for the price of eleven when prepaid annually. SecureBackup offers data backup options including SecureBackup HOME for personal use as well as SecureBackup PRO for business applications. The new discount applies to both the HOME and PRO editions of SecureBackup.

With eight years of experience in the IT services industry, the professionals at SecureBackup understand the importance of providing alternative payment options as well as discounts to clients. With a commitment to offering reliable backup software, combined with exceptional customer support, SecureBackup is dedicated to offering the best value in offsite data storage.

“Despite the global economic downturn, many businesses continue to see the importance of protecting their data and we want to help them to do that in an affordable way,” says Steve Eschweiler of SecureBackup (http://www.securebackup.com).

SecureBackup offers Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS 197) A.E.S. file encryption, password encryption that meets National Security Agency (NSA) guidelines, and HIPAA compliance. In addition, SecureBackup provides file compression, multi-threading, and smart file synchronization features which improve backup performance.

“We are confident that our service and features are not only of the highest quality, but that we can offer it at a price that anyone can afford,” concludes Eschweiler.

About SecureBackup LLC: Secure online storage firm, SecureBackup LLC, (http://www.securebackup.com) provides online backup services to a variety of clients throughout the world. Engineered with security, reliability, and ease-of-use in mind, SecureBackup has many features to offer clients at competitive prices.

Media Contact:
Steve Eschweiler
SecureBackup LLC
9 Grago Blvd
Canastota, NY 13032-1005
1-800-351-8816
http://www.securebackup.com

Secure Online Backup

In the “What Makes an Online Backup Solution, Secure?” post, I wanted to address server-side eavesdropping so I’ll do my best to describe it in “English”.

Your online backups are only as secure as your password. What a lot of folks don’t realize is that entering a password online, even with SSL encryption and an HTTPS connection, is not 100% secure. You may wonder why this is so. Afterall, online banking uses SSL encryption when you access your bank account online. Well, the reason why it’s not 100% secure is due to the fact that SSL only encrypts the communication between your computer and the server. Once data enters the server, it is no longer secured by SSL. This is because the server needs to interpret whatever data you sent from your browser to the server. So the data on the server is open to eavesdropping. I’ll be honest and say that eavesdropping is not an easy thing to do. In theory, you first need to gain access to the server. Secondly, you need to install a program on the server that “listens” or “scans” for this type of information. Both of these are hard to do and there measures that a Server Administrator can put in place to help prevent this but it’s still not 100% secure.

SecureBackup avoids the problem altogether by the way in which it was designed. We don’t have a copy of your password so you don’t need to enter it online. Your password is created on your computer and is never transmitted across the Internet. This provides for a level of protection above and beyond what SSL alone can provide. If no password is ever transmitted, no password can ever be intercepted.

This is why SecureBackup requires you to sign up for service within the software rather than online. The main idea here is that everything is created and encrypted right on your computer.

Your Password is Your Security

As mentioned in some of my other posts, your online backups are only as secure as your password. If you want to keep them from prying eyes, you need to safeguard your password. With SecureBackup, we have done what we can on our end to protect it. Secure password protection is the key to having a secure, online backup service.

SecureBackup Client

SecureBackup, a premier online backup firm, recently unveiled its new website where computer users can select from a variety of secure online storage options based on their individual storage needs.

CANASTOTA, NY – Premier online backup firm, SecureBackup LLC, recently announced that it launched a new website to better serve its customers. The website features a variety of secure online storage options, including SecureBackup HOME for personal use as well as SecureBackup PRO for business applications.

With more than eight years of production web server experience, the professionals at SecureBackup understand the importance of providing safe and secure online backup services. With a commitment to offering outstanding backup services, combined with exceptional customer support, SecureBackup has been engineered from the ground up with security in mind. A highly secure data backup solution, SecureBackup does not suffer from server-side eavesdropping attacks. Additionally, all files with SecureBackup are protected using United States government strength AES file encryption techniques.

“We are thrilled with the launch of our new website. Now an even greater number of customers can benefit from the superior online backup services SecureBackup provides. Whether it’s a fire, flood, a computer crash, or other disaster, our customers have peace of mind knowing their data is securely stored and can be easily retrieved when needed,” says Steve Eschweiler of SecureBackup (http://www.securebackup.com).

SecureBackup has many proprietary technologies and measures in place to maintain customer security. At SecureBackup, passwords are never entered online, decrypted online, or stored online. Because the entire encryption and decryption process occurs on its clients’ computers and not on SecureBackup servers, the firm ensures that all measures have been taken to fully protect the information being stored. Additionally, since the process is automated, SecureBackup customers can rest assured that their valuable information is being stored and backed up frequently and securely.

SecureBackup offers a variety of secure online storage options to meet every customer’s specific backup needs. The firm’s SecureBackup HOME package is appropriate for personal use and offers unlimited online backup. With the HOME package, files are backed up directly from the customer’s hard drive, allowing for easy storage of family photos, videos, and other personal files.

For business professionals, SecureBackup PRO is also available, offering 50 GB to 6 TB of safe and secure online storage. Ideal for small business or home office backup, the PRO package also offers customers professionally managed, dedicated backup servers for storing the most sensitive business information.

“People fail to make regular backups simply because it often requires a considerable amount of time and effort. At SecureBackup, we offer automatic online backup with a user-friendly ‘set-it-and-forget-it’ interface to help make this process as painless as possible,” concludes Eschweiler.

About SecureBackup LLC: Secure online storage firm, SecureBackup LLC, (http://www.securebackup.com) provides superior backup storage services to a variety of clients throughout the country. Engineered with security in mind, SecureBackup has many proprietary technologies and measures in place to ensure the safety and security of all files. For personal use, the firm offers SecureBackup HOME, giving customers unlimited storage space for storing family photos, videos and other files. Perfect for the home office or small business, the firm also provides SecureBackup PRO, offering 50 GB to 6 TB of secure online storage.

Media Contact:
Steve Eschweiler
SecureBackup LLC
9 Grago Blvd
Canastota, NY 13032-1005
1-800-351-8816
http://www.securebackup.com

Secure Online Backup

In my “What Makes an Online Backup Solution, Secure?” post, I touched on the fact that an online backup service should never offer a password recovery option because it can subject your password to discovery. I should also have mentioned that some backup services offer an encryption key recovery option instead, which is just as dangerous.

An encryption key is typically a series of bytes generated from your password. So if you had a password that was say, “password123″, it would be transformed into an encryption key. The encryption key is what is used to encrypt and decrypt your files. So whether we are talking about password recovery or encryption key recovery, it is essentially the same thing.

I’ve seen quite a few online backup services offer some form of recovery. Yet these services claim that your backups cannot be viewed by anyone but you. This is simply a misleading statement on their part. The reality is that if the backup service provides a recovery method for your password or encryption key, your backups are at risk. Afterall, a malicious party could claim to be you, provide the right credentials, and then get your password handed over to him, or he could find a way to get your password by hacking the recovery system itself. Either way, your backups are compromised because your password is the only thing protecting them from prying eyes. If you really want to be secure, the online backup service should not have a copy of your password and should never offer a recovery option of any kind.

SecureBackup was engineered from the ground up to be as secure as possible. We simply don’t have a copy of your password or file encryption key stored anywhere. Even if someone held us at gunpoint demanding your password, we wouldn’t be able to provide it. Now you may wonder if we would take the bullet for you? Quite honestly, we wouldn’t have a choice.