Back up and restore security

[Guest]

Can a password be added when backing up or restoring files and folders? If
someone copied a backup file away, can the person restore the information
using the restore wizard?

 

[Steven L Umbach]

With he built in backup there us no way to use passwords. Any administrator
or user that has the user right to backup and restore files can do so. If
that is a concern then you should look at using file encryption like the
built in EFS in XP Pro. They still could backup and restore it but could not
access the EFS files without the user or Recovery Agent EFS private key. EFS
is a double edged sword in that it is not all that hard to lose permanent
access to your own files if you do not take some simple precautions like
backing up your private key to a password protected.pfx file on external
media. Also beware that any local administrator can set themselves up to be
a Recovery Agent on the computer. --- Steve

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;223316 --- EFS best
practices.

 

[Guest]

Agreed. As another option, if you're using MS Backup to create a backup file,
then an alternative would be an archiver such as pkzip, rar, or arj, which
will allow a password to be set on the archive. With a reasonbaly long
password this is adequate security for most purposes, and doesn't have the
problems associated with key-based systems like efs.