Automate encrypted backup to online-storage

[Jo*]

Hi there,

I use Espionage with great pleasure and recommend it to anyone who wants to safeguard critical data. Works flawless for me and it's great to see the app is actively developed and refined.

I'm thinking of a solution to automatically back-up my encrypted data to an online-storage-service (such as Mozy, SpiderOak or iDrive). Although most online-storages come with built-in encryption I'd rather only transfer data I encrypted myself.

The back-up process can usually be automated using the UIs that come with the online-storages. I'd like to run my scheduled back-ups to online-storage at night. Is there anything I will have to take special care of when auto-transferring the Espionage-encrypted folders to online-storage? I know that locked encrypted folders are not meant to be modified in locked status.

And one additional question: Can I encrypt my Entourage database? Is it sufficient to set the encrypted database to "Autounlock at login" to make sure Entourage is able to access the database? I do not autostart Entourage so there wouldn't be a conflict. Is "Autounlock at login" being reverted back to Lock once the Mac is put to sleep? Cause that might cause a conflict when the Mac wakes up while I'm not there to enter the Espionage password thus Entourage might not be able to access the database.

Thanks

Jo

[greg]

I use Espionage with great pleasure and recommend it to anyone who wants to safeguard critical data. Works flawless for me and it's great to see the app is actively developed and refined.

Thanks! :-)

The back-up process can usually be automated using the UIs that come with the online-storages. I'd like to run my scheduled back-ups to online-storage at night. Is there anything I will have to take special care of when auto-transferring the Espionage-encrypted folders to online-storage? I know that locked encrypted folders are not meant to be modified in locked status.

As long as the folders are locked, and you've whitelisted your backup application, everything should go fine. Problems can occur if you try to backup while locking/unlocking a folder, or in certain situations if you try to backup an unlocked folder.  The easiest way is to ensure everything goes fine is to use Espionage's "Lock All Folders..." menu item from its global status menu prior to initiating the backup.

And one additional question: Can I encrypt my Entourage database? Is it sufficient to set the encrypted database to "Autounlock at login" to make sure Entourage is able to access the database? I do not autostart Entourage so there wouldn't be a conflict. Is "Autounlock at login" being reverted back to Lock once the Mac is put to sleep? Cause that might cause a conflict when the Mac wakes up while I'm not there to enter the Espionage password thus Entourage might not be able to access the database.

As I mentioned earlier, currently Entourage has an issue where it will not update its Metadata for emails if you encrypt Entourage's Metadata. Entourage's Metadata allows you to use Spotlight to search for emails in it, so it's a rather useful feature to have. I believe it's possible to disable this feature though in Entourage's preferences. If you don't care about using Spotlight with Entourage you can encrypt the identities folder I mentioned in that link and associate it with Entourage, it will work fine.

There is some good news on this front though, we've recently spoken with some of the folks at the Mac Business Unit, and it sounds like they're interested in resolving this issue. If you'd like to see this issue resolved soon, feel free to let them know. :-)