Backaroo’s focus is on backups.  That is to say, Backaroo cares first and foremost that you have a backup copy of your work.  It does this quickly and efficiently, and very securely: network traffic is encrypted with the same 2048-bit RSA encryption that your bank uses.

With great consideration and careful design, Backaroo’s backup stores are standard folders containing standard files.  If you ever have to recover a file, this makes it incredibly easy to do so.  You can use Spotlight to search through your backups, then copy or share the item you wish to restore – in fact all the normal things you can do with files you can do with Backaroo backups – because they are normal files.

If you need to encrypt your backups when they are in long-term storage at the Receiver, Backaroo is happy to work with whatever encryption technology you like.  This is an important separation of concerns: Backaroo does backups, and your encryption technology does encryption.

The key benefits here are simplicity (easy to restore), reliability (less to go wrong) and diminished risk (no reliance on a single technology for combined backup & encryption).

Some dedicated long-term-encryption technologies include (for example): Apple’s own built-in FileVault; the Kingston DataTraveler 2000 USB key (which features an alphanumeric PIN-pad to provide hardware-level encryption); various products from Apricorn (which also feature hardware-level encryption); Disk Utility’s encrypted volumes feature; all Mac-compatible DataLocker products; in fact any storage device which presents itself to the operating system as a standard disk can be used.

Lastly, it’s worth mentioning the most straightforward way of securing your backups is to simply restrict access to them.  You can restrict network access with a firewall, and physical access with locked doors.  In an age of complexity, sometimes these simple solutions are overlooked – but I think they are well worth your consideration.