The 5 data loss risks you might worry about but shouldn't

Onward from our post about the risks you do need to consider we now go on to the risks that you might worry about but shouldn't. This is for extra peace of mind, but also to make sure that you don't pay more for something you shouldn't.

1. Thieves stealing any personal data of yours other than passwords or your address book.

Your data is still at risk, but other than passwords and email addresses of your contacts, most online thieves aren't concerned with anything else.

2. Your backup provider going out of business

It happens, but when it does, the providers usually give you ample warning. Even if they don't, and they suddenly shut down, unless this coincides with your hard drive failing or your house burning down (very unlikely) it won't cause a problem, as you can simply switch to a competitor. It'll probably cause a little hassle at most.

3. Your backup provider not being a big brand

Actually, some big brands are worse than their smaller competitors because they don't need to rely on word of mouth in order to get new customers - they have big advertising budgets.

4. Your backup provider's employees reading your files

Mostly your files won't be that interesting to employees. However, your files could still be at risk from outsiders - the government could be interested, as could jealous spouse, business partners, either of which could launch a lawsuit against you and subpoena your data from your backup provider. What you need to worry about isn't the employees themselves, but what they do when they're faced with a court order - either a subpoena or another form of

5. Getting the best encryption protocol

If your data is properly encrypted, the chances of it being cracked are close to nil. However, just because somebody claims to have encryption, that doesn't mean that it'll be at all effective, no matter how many bits are used or how which protocol. Some providers, (e.g. Dropbox) claim to encrypt your files, and probably do, but since they also keep the key, this means that should they wish to access your data they can. In this case, they really might as well not encrypt your data at all. Other providers (e.g. Spideroak) encrypt your files in such a way that they don't have access to the key. This makes it much harder (although not necessarily impossible) for them to hand over your data. For instance, see here.