tags: Security title: Physical Security date: 2012-08-10 07:00:00 Since [Mat Honan's worst-day](http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/08/apple-amazon-mat-honan-hacking/), I've seen several posts about backups. [Shawn Blanc wrote a nice summary](http://shawnblanc.net/2012/08/backup-2/) of his system. I think he is 2/3 to a good system.[^blanc] I'll offer up the advice I give to anyone that will listen. *Online backups are nice, but nothing beats an offsite physical backup.* I've written about [my backup OCD before](http://www.macdrifter.com/2011/08/a-map-of-paranoia.html) and not much has changed. ### The Cloud ### I've tried all of the major online backup services. All had some amount of impact on system performance. Most required a great deal of time to backup. Maybe it's because I'm a natural skeptic or maybe it's because I've only met one person that ever restored from an online backup, but I have serious doubts about the value of these services in an emergency. ### Amazon S3 ### I use [Arq to backup](http://www.haystacksoftware.com/arq/) encrypted disk images of my most personal data. It's encrypted because I don't trust people. It's a disk image because I don't trust software. [A DMG file](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Disk_Image) can be mounted by any version of OS X. I can also browse to Amazon S3 in a variety of ways to get to the file. It's not a black-box user experience. ### Physical Offsite is the Canonical ### I keep two offsite backups. There is one hidden in my home. If I am robbed, I can reclaim much of my past digital life within minutes of getting a new Mac. Music files *can* be repurchased, but baby pictures can not. I also keep another physical backup at work. If my house burned down, it would only take me a couple of hours (and a new Mac) to get back to a recent state. These backups are not real-time but they are close enough. 30 days old is still better than nothing. If you want my advice, clone your data to a hard drive. Send it to someone you trust to hold it. Repeat as often as you both can tolerate. [^blanc]: To be fair, Shawn never says that this list is his complete system.