Carbonite vs. JungleDisk Security

[eldiablopotato]

Hi,

I'm trying to decide between using Carbonite, or JungleDisk for online backup.

Carbonite: Uses a combination of Blowfish and DES III (Triple DES) encryption.
Jungle Disk: Uses a AES-256 encryption.

Both seem to be pretty secure. My question is, which company offers the most secure method?

 

[Chiefcrowe]

i'd say Carbonite is more secure judging from the combo encryption methods you mentioned.

also carbonite seems to be better in that it gives you unlimited space (as i understand it)

 

[Tsaar]

I feel I have some experience here.

I have used Carbonite for the past 1.5 years (have roughly 6 months left on the 1 year subscription...for those that do not know Carbonite does not have a monthly subscription model, but 1 year at $55).

I have 210GB of stuff backed up (I had tried Mozy and it took forever to backup). So I went with Carbonite thinking it couldn't be any worse than Mozy, and it also took forever to backup (we are talking probably 6 or more months...probably a similar time to Mozy at that time). Also, to clarify my internet speeds have always been good in my area, so it was not a network bandwidth issue.

Well, in December I moved about 80GB of files around did some renaming. Well Carbonite didn't like this and started backing up those 80GB like they were new files. I thought no big deal, my backup will jump to about 300GB and then after a month Carbonite will remove those "deleted files" after the one-month grace period on removed files then my backup will drop back down to 210GB.

Here we are, in April now, and Carbonite had backed up 45 of those 80GB. I was thinking this is ridiculous how slow this is. I saw Mozy still was doing its 2GB free trial and I decided to test out its speed. When it did the 2GB upload in mere hours I said $5 for one month can't hurt. Well, 1-1.5 weeks later Mozy had backed up all 210GB (and this is with the computer being off for some time).

I am now a permanent Mozy customer and the 6 months left on my Carbonite subscription are just wasted money.

Also, one other Carbonite annoyance: Files over a certain size (and I have a lot of large ISOs from MSDN and games I have archived on my computer...also think they treat videos the same) are NOT auto-backed up. There are also many file extensions they ignore. This can be painful to go manually set each one.

I was worried I would have to redo all of this with Mozy, but it is as simple as telling Mozy to backup everything in 1-click, and it literally backs up every file no matter the extension or size.

I have no experience with Jungle Disk, but I hope I helped shed some light on the auto-backup software, as I have been using it for 1.5 years now.

Also, I feel the security it so strong on any of these you should not worry. Unless, of course, someone makes a quantum computer to hack your data...

 

[Chiefcrowe]

Thanks, that is really good to know. I have had good experiences with Mozy but haven't tried Carbonite before. Also, Backblaze is another good one. they also offer the ability to backup usb external drives as long as they're connected!

 

[eldiablopotato]

What's important to me is that where ever I upload my data, I don't want that company to be able to decrypt my data.

From what I understand JungleDisk lets you set a key, so only you can access the data.

If someone can verify this, it appears if you pick to manage your own key with Carbonite. They won't have access to your data at all:
http://cp-carbonite.kb.net/display/4n/kb/article.aspx?aid=1059&searchstring=&n=&tab=faq&bt=4n&s=

 

[Tsaar]

What's important to me is that where ever I upload my data, I don't want that company to be able to decrypt my data.

From what I understand JungleDisk lets you set a key, so only you can access the data.

If someone can verify this, it appears if you pick to manage your own key with Carbonite. They won't have access to your data at all:
http://cp-carbonite.kb.net/display/4n/kb/article.aspx?aid=1059&searchstring=&n=&tab=faq&bt=4n&s=

You can do this with both Mozy and Carbonite.

 

[Jenny89]

What's important to me is that where ever I upload my data, I don't want that company to be able to decrypt my data.

From what I understand JungleDisk lets you set a key, so only you can access the data.

If someone can verify this, it appears if you pick to manage your own key with Carbonite. They won't have access to your data at all:
http://cp-carbonite.kb.net/display/4n/kb/article.aspx?aid=1059&searchstring=&n=&tab=faq&bt=4n&s=

As long as you opt to manage your own encryption keys then you should be ok. I know that both Carbonite and Mozy (unsure about Jungle Disk) try to encourage users to allow the hosts to manage your encryption key, stating that if you opt to look after your own and you lose it, you’ll not be able to access your data again. However, the big issue here, is that by allowing the hosts to manage your encryption key is that they can access your data. On the other side of things, Mozy for example, should they manage it, will send your data back to you in an unencrypted zip file when you restore your data. For U.K. Users who are FSA regulated or have private data that cannot fall in to the wrong hands, need to tred very carefully as they will not have a leg to stand on should their connection be compromised.

 

[sourceninja]

I use crashplan. You can use your own keys and backup to either their cloud service, a usb drive, or even a friend's computer.

 

[eldiablopotato]

As long as you opt to manage your own encryption keys then you should be ok. I know that both Carbonite and Mozy (unsure about Jungle Disk) try to encourage users to allow the hosts to manage your encryption key, stating that if you opt to look after your own and you lose it, you’ll not be able to access your data again. However, the big issue here, is that by allowing the hosts to manage your encryption key is that they can access your data. On the other side of things, Mozy for example, should they manage it, will send your data back to you in an unencrypted zip file when you restore your data. For U.K. Users who are FSA regulated or have private data that cannot fall in to the wrong hands, need to tred very carefully as they will not have a leg to stand on should their connection be compromised.

Good to hear, thanks!