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If my laptop is stolen, is there any reason to believe that the thief would be able to access my online backup? I use an application to encrypt passwords, and I don't see anything in the Backblaze interface that would allow them to access my online backup. This is assuming they could even access my user account on the stolen laptop.

Thanks for any feedback!

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2 Answers

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Backblaze does not store your password, encrypted or otherwise, on your computer. Thus, a thief that steals your computer would absolutely NOT be able to access your backed up data on our servers. If you happen to have written down your password on your computer, we obviously don't have control over that - so please keep your own password safe.

Gleb Budman CEO, Backblaze

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Long version

If they have physical access to your laptop and some tech-know-how they will break into your user account easily. (assuming your disk is not encrypted)

Breaking into the application itself and decrypting the passwords is possible using rainbowtables or a brute force attack.

Also a lot of websites like forums store passwords in cleartext inside their cookies.

Assuming they'd get this far would mean that all of your passwords are compromised. And they will most likely get to your online back-ups.

Short version

Yes they will be able to get to them, should they have the knowledge.

What you can do

There is no way you can be 100% secure, but you can encrypt your entire OS. I know this sounds contradicted with what I said previously, but the post is about making a decoy OS and a hidden one. With luck they will stop looking for more when/if they crack the password of the first volume. Still weigh down the pros and the cons of completely encrypting your hard drive.

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So, you think they could hack into my ENCRYPTED passwords, but you advise me to consider ENCRYPTING the whole OS? How is one any safer than the other? – Walternate Dec 5 '10 at 14:58
@Walternate Check my post again, in short it is about the second container, still it is a game of chance. – Duijf Dec 5 '10 at 15:35
I know that I'll get hit with a wrench or something for posting it, but I can't resist it: xkcd.com/538 ... Anyway, I think encrypting the OS is a very good start. – Bobby Dec 6 '10 at 22:15

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