There are many service providers who offer online back up services. Some of them are Mozy, BackupandShare.com, Citadel Remote Backup, SafeCopy Backup, Iron Mountains, ElephantDrive, Xdrive, Genie Online Backup, AT&T Online Vault, Carbonite, eSureIT, iBackup. These are only a few to name.

Remote back up service are mostly suitable for individuals and small businesses. However, any of them trying these services without a good broadband connectivity as well as a high performing system – will for-sure visit the hell on earth.

In fact many people and many companies have been relying on some of the services mentioned above. The security of backing up data online is also questioned when services of even bog companies like Google and Twitter are being hacked.

Many of Remote backup services, for example – Mozy, encrypts the files that are to be backed up, in your PC itself so that they are not easily accessible even when steals them in mid of the back up process. In addition, some services even scramble the encrypted data through a SSL connection. This is the same mechanism that is used by online merchants to move credit card information.

What if the data is accessed at the data centers by their employees? Well, there are some services that offer remedy for this too. When they are encrypting the data on your PC, the encryption key will be given by yourself so that decrypting and encrypting can be done by none other than you.

However, there are certain precautions that are required to be taken up before opting for a service.

• Ensure that the service providers are firm at their policies.
• Use strong passwords or encryption keys for files that carry vital or sensitive data.
• Try to add an extra protection like password protecting your documents or using some third party applications to pre-encrypt your data.

Now-a-days cyber criminals are using popular events, current developments and even movie premieres to attract people who seek free or pirated content and exploiting.

A recent online scam which promises viewers to download the recent “Twilight – New Moon” movie is found to install malware in PCs.

The entire process of this scam is as follows…

• Viewers are lured with the text websites, chat rooms and blogs that read: “Watch New Moon Full Movie.” Comment posts with related keywords are also used simultaneously to attract more search engines.
• Search results for the movie then link users to stolen images from the movie itself, convincing the fan that the movie is only one click away.
• When they click on the “movie player” they are told to install a “streamviewer”.
• The streamviewer, however, installs malware on the user’s computer.

Don’t get enticed by such scams to get downloads without verifying if the sources are genuine or not. It can turn up to be more hectic not only in terms of cost but also in terms of toil and time. And the entire accountability will fall upon none other than you.

Courtesy: PCTools.com