Safe Personal Backups

Schneier on Security: Safe Personal Computing

Schneier lists things you can do to keep your computer safe.

One thing that caught my eye was backups. He says to backup regularly, and I agree, but he also says to store an off-site backup in a safe-deposit box and to destroy old backups. I'm assuming these measures are to prevent data theft.

I've been encrypting my backups for a while, and I think it handles the problem nicely. I can store my off-site backups at work, and the worst that can happen is they're destroyed. I can chuck an old CD-ROM in the trash with confidence that a dumpster diver won't be reading my email.

There's the problem of how to back up the key used to encrypt the backups, but that's the same as the general problem of how to back up any encryption key.