Relax. Your backup is secure.
At Carbonite, keeping your data secure is our top priority – our business and reputation depend on it. We use proven technology and take every precaution to make sure your files arrive safely at our data center – and stay safe and protected for as long as you back up with Carbonite.
Bank-level privacy protection
To prevent unauthorized access to your files, we encrypt them with 128-bit Blowfish encryption before they even leave your computer. Then they're transmitted to our data centers using Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology, the same security technology used in online banking and e-commerce transactions. Your files remain encrypted on our servers. We even pay a professional security firm to test our intrusion defenses to make sure no one else can access your files.
Enterprise-grade servers
To protect your files against mechanical disk failure, we store them on enterprise-grade disk drives that have significantly lower failure rates than those typically found in consumer PCs. Plus we store your data across a redundant array of disk drives – so if any one drive fails, it can be replaced in real time with no loss of data.
State-of-the-art data centers, guarded around-the-clock
Our Carbonite data center facilities are temperature-controlled and equipped with uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) and on-site emergency backup generators with guaranteed fuel contracts. Personnel access is tightly restricted – we use biometric scanners and electronic keycards with PIN codes to control access to our servers. And our facilities are guarded 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Interested in learning more about what we do to keep your files safe?
Read our data security white paper
Security FAQs:
What is encryption?
Encryption is the process of using an algorithm (program) to scramble computer data in such a way that it cannot be read without access to a key (long sequence of characters). Encryption is the most effective way to prevent unauthorized parties from having access to data. There are many types of encryption available; for the most part they differ based on the strength of the program, or algorithm, used to scramble the data. Carbonite uses 128-bit Blowfish encryption to keep your data private.
Can Carbonite employees see my backed up files?
Access to your backed up files is protected by your encryption key which is kept strictly confidential. Unless you choose to manage your own encryption key (see below), a limited number of Carbonite employees are able to access backed up files in order to assist with data recovery if needed. However, they will do so only after obtaining your consent.
If you are subject to industry regulations that require no one outside your organization have access to your backed up files (e.g. HIPAA regulations), Carbonite provides you with the option to manage the sole copy of your encryption key. If you choose this option, features such as Anytime Anywhere Access will be unavailable to you. Also, note that if you lose the sole copy of your encryption key, there will be no way for Carbonite to restore your backed up files. For these reasons, Carbonite recommends, and the majority of our customers choose, to have Carbonite manage their encryption keys.
For additional questions, please email security@carbonite.com.
What about hackers? Could someone steal my data?
We make every effort to keep your backed up data as secure as possible. We pay a professional security firm to test our intrusion defenses. In 2008, Heise Security tested online backup providers by attempting to hack into their systems. Carbonite was one of two companies that passed their test.
Carbonite values your privacy.
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