From: foodie@netcom.com (Jamie Lawrence)
Date: Fri, 14 Jun 1996 14:13:42 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Web Based Encrypted Backup
Message-ID: <v02140b01ade634604997@[10.0.2.15]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Connected Corporation announced DataSafe, a Mac/Windows web based
backup service.

$14.95/Month for 50MB, archival CD-ROM for $24.95 each.

Offers passwords and DES encryption. Storage is on 2 mirrored
sites.

Phone # (508) 270-0035, http://www.connected.com/.

>From thier site:

-------
Security

DataSafe uses the federally approved Data Encryption Standard (DES) with a
56-bit key to encrypt
all of your data before it leaves your PC. This level of encryption is so
powerful, it is not permitted
to be exported outside of the United States (we use a different, but
similarly powerful encryption
scheme for our international customers). You have the option to choose your
own encryption
password, which is never transferred to us over the modem. In this way, no
one but you can read
your data - not when it is in transfer to us, nor when it is being stored
in encrypted format at our
secure operations centers. When this level of encryption is combined with
the fact that we only
transmit the portions of each file that change every day, not the entire
file, the chances that anyone
will be able to read or make use of your data as it travels over the
network are practically eliminated.
DataSafe uses the TCP/IP communications protocol for both its private
dial-up network and
Internet-based services.
--------

I really like the idea of distributed, encrypted backups, but
this strikes me as the kind of thing that has the potential to
get a lot of gullible people in trouble.

Hopefully someone offshore with proven security and a wider choice
of algorithms will compete...

(I don't know if Connected is good at security, so this shouldn't
be construed as a swipe at them. Does anyone know anything about
them?)

-j

--
The signal is the noise.
____________________________________________________________________
Jamie Lawrence   mailto:jal@cyborganic.net  mailto:foodie@netcom.com