Do you encrypt your backup tapes? - Storage Technology Magazine

Do you encrypt your backup tapes?

Do You Encrypt Your Backup Tapes?



Do you encrypt your backup tapes?
If not, why?
Where should encryption take place?

Storage security companies take note: Hardly anyone encrypts their backup tapes, nor do they really feel like they should. A measly 4% of respondents indicate that they encrypt all their backup tapes, while another 6% say that they encrypt some of them. Why is that? First and foremost, users think it's unnecessary (62%), resting their hopes on their vaulting provider instead. "As long as the off-site storage

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location provides adequate security, encryption of data on the tapes does not seem necessary," writes one user. At the same time, users worry about being able to restore. As one user put it: "Tape restore of a large database is still a 50/50 proposition. Adding encryption doesn't help those odds."

This was first published in August 2003