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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

ONSITE, OFFSITE - WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?
Basically, remote(offsite) backups work like regular tape backups, with one important difference.

Instead of sending backups to a tape drive or other media attached to the computer, an offsite backup sends encrypted file data over the Internet to a computer file storage system safely offsite. This usually happens at night while your business is closed and nobody is using the computers. It's completely automatic. In fact, you may forget it's working every night.
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WHY ARE REMOTE BACKUPS CONSIDERED MORE BENEFICIAL?
The data is immediately stored offsite using an automated backup system. If you have a fire or theft at your office, you can still retrieve your business data.
Only an Internet connection is needed, there is no need for expensive backup equipment and media. Since the system is automated, manual labour is eliminated.
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HOW SECURE IS MY DATA?

  1. Your password is protected by a one-way MD5 encrypted algorithm.
  2. Your session is protected by a 1024-bit key only YOU know.
  3. Your data is encrypted and compressed BEFORE it leaves your computer.

There are three encryption algorithms available:

  • [AES] Advanced Encryption Standard algorithm
  • [DESede] Triple DES algorithm
  • [Twofish] Twofish algorithm

Twofish encryption has never been broken. Triple DES is used by international banking systems. Rijndael AES 128 bit is U.S. Federal Standard. Some banks and governments are moving to Rijndael AES 128.

Please refer to references on Cryptography for more information on this area.

Then there are two different encryption modes.

  1. [ECB] Electronic Cook Book Mode
  2. [CBC] Cipher Block Chaining Mode

We recommend the use of CBC mode as it offers better security.
You can learn more about Electronic Cook Book Mode and Cipher Block Chaining Mode through Google.

  1. We backup your information to another data centre in a different city each day after you've backed up your critical information.
  2. Our servers are colocated at the same Tier-1 data centres where International Internet Exchanges route traffic around the Internet.
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WHAT IS ENCRYPTION?
Encryption is basically a mathematical formula that scrambles a data file. The only way to unscramble it is with the encryption code. Learn more about encryption and Cryptography through Google.
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IS MY DATA ENCRYPTED AS IT TRAVELS OVER THE INTERNET?
Yes. All data is encrypted before it leaves your computer.
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HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
The price is based on the compressed data stored on our system. The amount of compression varies according to the type of data you are backing up, but most businesses backup a minimum of 10GB. Top Back

“HOW MUCH EXACTLY WILL I HAVE TO PAY EACH MONTH?”
Your ultimate cost depends upon how much space you use. After your free trial period we will be able to assess how much storage you will require per month. If you decide to continue with the service after the free trial, you will receive an invoice for that storage plan that meets that requirement for the coming month. If actual storage in that month is greater than your storage plan, your storage plan will be elevated to match your new monthly requirement and your invoice for the next valid billing period will reflect that change.
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I HAVE SEEN PRICES THAT APPEAR CRAZY COMPARED TO YOURS. HOW IS IT POSSIBLE THAT PRICES VARY SO MUCH?
We do firmly believe in getting at least what you pay for and possibly more; different backup providers approach the question of what to charge in many different ways.

We have many years of experience providing Offsite Backup Servces to companies and professionals and have identified the most common usage patterns. Furthermore, we know how much storage costs.

So we've formulated these concepts into our standard storage plans listed in the price list.

However, we are here to try to meet your requirements so if you have an alternative structure and proposal, let us know and we will endeavour to provide you with a suitable storage pricing plan.
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HOW OFTEN WILL MY COMPUTER BE BACKED UP?
As often as you wish as you set up and administer the backup schedule that works best for your company.
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WHAT TASKS DO I HAVE TO DO EVERY DAY TO RUN A BACKUP?
None! Once you schedule the time and frequency of your backups during installation, they run automatically.
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HOW MUCH DATA CAN I BACK UP?
As much as you want. You will be charged on the amount of actual compressed data you store.
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DO I NEED TO BACK UP MY ENTIRE COMPUTER?
No. Some clients back up only their data files, while others back up their programs and operating systems. Select only the files, directories, or drives that you wish to backup. Essentially, focus on your critical data.
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HOW DO I RESTORE MY DATA?
If you have a catastrophic loss and no operating system, you must first install your base operating system, service packs, and network drivers then re-install the critical data software. Once this is done, you can connect to the critical data servers. Using your encryption key saved to disk at the time of the initial install, you can restore your data.

The graphical user interface lets you select individual files and/or folders for restoration. You can also request that your data be placed on a USB device and physically sent to you.
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IS THERE A CHARGE TO RESTORE MY DATA?
There is never a charge to restore your data online. If you require us to generate physical media and courier or mail it to you, there may be nominal additional charges dependent upon your level of service.
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WHICH OPERATING SYSTEMS DO YOU SUPPORT?
critical data's backup client is written in pure JAVA, so it will run on just about any operating system you might have. At the present, we support;

  • Windows
  • MAC
  • Linux
  • Solaris

If you have a need for another platform, drop us a line (make live link for contact) and we'll see how we can accommodate you.
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HOW MANY BACKUPS DO YOU RETAIN?
How many backups we keep depends upon the "Retention Policy" you configure when creating the backup set. During backup, if critical data's backup client notices that you have deleted (or updated) a file on your computer, it will put the corresponding deleted (or updated) file already backed up on our backup server into a "Retention Area".

The Retention Policy setting defines how long files inside the retention area are kept on the backup server before they are automatically deleted. The Retention Policy only affects "retained" files (i.e. files that have already been deleted or updated on your computer).

For those files not yet updated on your computer, the backups of these files are kept in the data area on the backup server and aren't affected by the setting of the Retention Policy. These backup copies of unchanged files remain on the backup server forever until the original files are removed (or updated) from your computer.
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HOW LONG DOES AN OFFSITE BACKUP TAKE?
It depends on the size of your backup, speed of your Internet connection, and amount of "changed" data. The initial backup requires transmission of all data, so it takes the longest to complete. For extremely large amounts of data, it is best to schedule the initial backup over a weekend, however smaller backup sets will simply run over night.

Remember, all of this is automated and you are not required to do anything to make it happen.

After the initial backup is complete, nightly backups are significantly smaller. Offices with high speed Internet connections should find this service comparable with tape drives.
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I ALREADY HAVE A TAPE SYSTEM. WHY SHOULD I USE critical data?
Tape systems can be reliable, but require a high level of ongoing maintenance to guarantee reliability. critical data is, in technical terms, a double-redundant system.

“...Remember, redundancy is the key to data security!...”

We maintain two separate backups of your data in two locations. The main risk of using tape systems is that they can break, but appear to be working. All indications are that backups were successful until you try to restore. If you want to continue to use tapes as your primary backup, consider using critical data as a secondary backup solution just in case your primary backup system fails.

Important: Your data is at risk if you are using a tape backup system and do not:

  • Clean your tape drives once a month;
  • Take your backups offsite every night, while keeping them close enough that they are easily accessible;
  • Test and restore once a month;
  • Keep at least a 20 backup rotation;
  • Have easy access to your backup software if you have to re-install it;
  • Follow safe tape handling practices.
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CAN I STILL USE MY TAPE SYSTEM?
Using a tape backup system and an offsite backup system offers the best of both worlds. Critical files, like billing, customer contact files and databases can be kept on the remote backup system, while the tape system can be used to create a full backup of the entire system once or twice a month, instead of on a daily basis. The tapes and drive will last longer and require less maintenance.

The remote backup system can then provide a quick and easy way to retrieve critical files and databases without the hassle of searching through tapes.

This also reduces the need to haul tapes off-site while ensuring that data will never be lost.
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WHAT IF WE ALREADY HAVE A ZIP, JAZ, CDR/W OR AN EXTERNAL USB/FIREWIRE (IEEE1394) HARD DRIVE?
Frankly, we believe that these media are not optimal for most users. An offsite backup service is completely automated and has the required file redundancy to protect important data. The only safe way to use removable disk media for backup is to have three disks and make the same backup three times.

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I HAVE MIRRORED/RAID HARD DRIVES. WON'T THAT PROTECT ME FROM VIRUSES OR DATA LOSS?
No. Mirrored hardware only protects you from a hardware failure. Since 90% of data loss is due to data corruption or user error, mirrored equipment offers no protection. This is because corrupt data gets instantly written to the mirrored equipment. The only way to protect your data is by having a backlog of backups to restore from.
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WE HAVE A NAS (NETWORK ATTACHED STORAGE) DEVICE TO STORE OUR BACKUPS, IS THERE ANY BENEFIT IN USING REMOTE BACKUP AS WELL?
Certainly. While Network Attached Storage (NAS) will provide additional space on which to store historical copies of data, it does not fulfil the security requirements of a proper backup plan and business continuity strategy as the data is not necessarily encrypted and could be accidentally accessed and deleted by people on the network.

In the event of any natural disaster such as flooding, fire, earthquake or simply a break in and theft of the equipment, the files will not be available to you to recover afterwards. You could use your NAS to provide you with an immediate and very fast local restore capability and use critical data's Remote Backup Service to supplement your strategy by providing the additional assurance that if the data on your NAS is unavailable to perform a restore, your files will still be available on critical data's secure servers.
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I TRAVEL AND USE A LAPTOP. CAN I USE REMOTE BACKUP?
Internet backups are the ideal solution for road warriors as well as laptop users in general. Using your Internet connection, you can backup and restore your data from any location at any time. If your laptop is stolen or damaged in transit, you will still be able to restore and access your valuable data.
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WHAT HAPPENS TO MY DATA AFTER IT'S TRANSMITTED TO critical data?
Redundant copies of your data reside encrypted in our secure facility. No one else has access to your data. Not even us. Only you have the encryption key to unlock the data, So DON'T lose it!
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CAN I TRANSFER FILES FROM ONE COMPUTER TO ANOTHER?
Yes, you could set up an alternate computer, re-sync to the critical data server and perform restores. Please note, however, that our software is not designed to be used for normal file transfer operations. We assume therefore your question is in regard to restoring to a computer different to the one which was originally backed up.
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WILL critical data BACKUP WINDOWS SYSTEM AND REGISTRY FILES?
Yes, we can. In fact using critical data's backup service, you can backup your entire system and restore it to a completely new system.
But we recommend that you use our service primarily for your critical data. In the event of a total system crash, theft, fire or similar event, systems can always be reinstalled. Unless you reinstall to an exactly identical system however, a lot of system and registry information will not correspond to the new hardware and can cause you more headaches than it is worth during the restore. Top Back

HOW DOES THE AUTOMATIC BACKUP SCHEDULER WORK?
At the time you have scheduled, your computer will make a secure TCP/IP connection to our servers. Your data will be encrypted before leaving your machine, then transmitted to and stored in our secure facility.
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HOW DO I BACKUP MULTIPLE COMPUTERS? WHAT ABOUT REMOTE SITES?
Using the critical data backup client, a single LAN administrator can configure backups for all computers, even at remote sites.
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ARE THE BACKUPS INCREMENTAL BACKUPS?
You can do both incremental as well as full backups with critical data. Obviously, full backups will take longer and should be scheduled once a week, once a fortnight or once a month depending upon your requirements. You control what you backup and how often it is backed up. You can change the type, frequency and content of your backup sets at any time. If you are not sure how to best set this up we are happy to help you.
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DOES IT WORK IF OUR COMPANY HAS A FIREWALL?
Absolutely! If you need assistance, our support personnel will help you configure your firewall for remote backups.
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WHAT IF I HAVE A TRANSMISSION OR MODEM CONNECTION FAILURE DURING THE BACKUP?
If a transmission is interrupted in the middle of a backup, the critical data software will continue to retry until a connection can be re-established, then continue the backup where it was interrupted.
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HOW MUCH COMPRESSION CAN I EXPECT FROM MY DATA?
Word files might get as great as 76% compression, while JPEG files would hardly get any compression at all. Other file types fall somewhere in between. The following table will give you an approximate ratio for differing file types. For estimating purposes, assume a 50% compression average of your native backup set size.

  • HLP - Microsoft Help Files, ca. 49%
  • DOC - Microsoft Word Files, ca. 56%
  • EXE - Windows Executable, ca. 54%
  • DBF - Database Files, ca. 66%
  • TXT - Text Files, ca. 85%
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WHAT HAPPENS IF I UNKNOWINGLY BACK UP CORRUPTED FILES?
The corrupt files get backed up and stored on our system. A backlog of backup sets that you can restore from will allow you to go back and restore files from the last date that the files were valid.
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CAN I RESTORE TO AN ALTERNATE LOCATION TO AVOID OVERWRITING A FILE?
Yes.
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WHAT IS MEANT BY ONLINE VERSUS OFFLINE RESTORES?
Data restored over the network link is an online restore. Data restored using a delivery service and some form of media is an offline restore. Any restore may be initiated online, but if the quantity of data is such that the restore time would be too great, clients have the option of having data placed on physical media and sent to them by overnight or same day courier if available in your area.
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WHAT OPERATING SYSTEMS ARE SUPPORTED?
All operating systems are supported for backup purposes.
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DOES critical data WORK ON MACINTOSH COMPUTERS?
Yes!
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WHAT TYPE OF CONNECTION DO I NEED?
critical data backup will work over any Internet connection, whether 56Kbps, ISDN (single or dual channel), dial-up, ADSL, leased line (128Kb or higher, e.g. E1, E3 et al) or even a satellite link. One important thing to remember if you have large backup sets and your daily backup is large, the faster the line you have the more data you will be able to back up within a practical amount of time.
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WHAT DO I DO IF I LOSE MY ENCRYPTION PASSWORD?
Lost passwords cannot be recovered. They are NEVER transmitted to our servers. We have NO WAY of getting them back. So DON'T lose it!
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HOW IS critical data DIFFERENT FROM OTHER BACKUP SERVICES I'VE HEARD ABOUT?
We are local and have representatives in the markets in which we are active. We understand the local country and culture and speak the local language. We are not shy to speak to clients. Call us, talk to us!

You'll be assisted every step of the way from initial configuration to retrieving your data when you need to restore. Our level of support is unequalled in the industry and that's why businesses that are serious about data security rely on us.
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