Back In Time

Will Back In Time Support Encryption Anytime?

Asked by Dave M G on 2010-10-26

I really like the "Back In Time" interface, and I have it running every hour to back my home directory to an external USB hard drive.

I would also love to use "Back In Time" to back up some data to an off site file hosting service via the internet. However, I would only be willing to store my personal files on a remote location if I can encrypt my files and ensure a certain minimum of privacy.

I know that "Back In Time" is based on rsync, and that there is a command line version of rsync called "rsyncrypto" that provides encryption.

So I'm just wondering if there's any chance the "Back In Time" GUI will at some point offer the option of encrypting back up files.

Currently, I'm experimenting with using Deja Dup for off site back ups, but it is error prone, and the interface is not as easy to understand as "Back In Time".

Thank you for all your hard work, and I hope this is a feature that can be implemented.

Question information

Language:: English Edit question

Status:: Answered

For:: Back In Time Edit question

Assignee:: No assignee Edit question

Last query:: 2010-10-26

Last reply:: 2013-02-08

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Dan (danleweb) said on 2010-10-26:

Hi,

Open a bug, but I'm not sure it will be implemented soon. Also keep in mind that BIT should be able to explore snapshots.
What you can do until then: use encfs et backup encripted folder.

Regards,
Dan

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Tom Metro (tmetro+ubuntu) said on 2013-02-08:

I wouldn't quite call rsyncrypto a "version of rsync." It's a backup tool built on top of rsync technology like many other backup tools are. (It's also a completely independent project from rsync.)

rsyncrypto attempts to apply encryption to backups while preserving all the functionality of rsync, including bandwidth efficiet backups to remote storage.

BiT doesn't use rsync for bandwidth efficiet backups to remote storage. It uses rsync for transfers between two local disks. If one happens to be a network file system, it's still treated by rsync as if it is local, and you lose out on much of the bandwidth savings rsync provides.

Given this, the obvious way to introduce encryption (and/or compression) is by using an encrypted file system as your target file system. For example, EncFS, as Dan suggests.

Of course BiT could be enhanced to integrate use of EncFS or a similar tool.

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Tom Metro (tmetro+ubuntu) said on 2013-02-08:

Added link to wishlist bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/backintime/+bug/482170