Encryption and Backups

[Mark C. Henderson]

On Feb 4, 14:13, Alan Olsen wrote:
} Subject: Encryption and Backups
} Something that I have not seen addressed is the need for strong encryption
} in backup software.
} 
} Most backup software has an "encryption" option, but I have seen few that
} have anything resembling strong encryption.  Furthermore, I have seen no
} real push for strong encryption for backups at all.

GNU tar is not the commercial backup solution many folks will be 
looking for, but it works, and has nice built-in hooks which are 
intended to call a compression program. 

One can also use these options to call an encryption program, as long 
as the encryption program takes stdin as input, stdout as output, 
encrypts by default, and decrypts when given the -d option. 

e.g. if the encryption program happens to be called /usr/local/bin/mg,
something like

gtar --use-compress-program /usr/local/bin/mg --block-compress -b 96 -cvf /dev/rst0 directory

will backup "directory" to tape in encrypted form under Sun OS 4.1.3

It also has support for incrementals, etc.


-- 
Mark Henderson -- markh at wimsey.bc.ca, henderso at netcom.com, mch at squirrel.com
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