[RESOLVED] Non-Stop Backup Security Shocker!
I have just tested this with ATI2012. I'm very interested to know if the same is true of ATI2013.
It seems non-stop backups are copied to a folder "Time Explorer Storage", which inherits its permissions from the root folder of the drive it is on. This normally grants read permission to ALL USERS.
The consequence is that if you setup a non-stop backup of, say, your documents folder, those documents are visible to ANYONE using the PC. All they have to do is browse to the "Time Explorer Storage" folder and double-click to open the backup, so the normal security provided between user accounts on Window is bypassed! The only thing getting in the way is that the "Time Explorer Storage" folder is hidden, so the user needs to change his/her folder options to "Show hidden files and folders" (no admin permissions required).
Of course it is possible to manually remove permissions for the "users" and "authenticated users" groups from the folder, but how many people would think to do this, or know how!
I can't believe there is such an obvious security hole in such a mature backup product. Does this still happen in ATI2013?
Issue addressed here.
Thanks for confirming Pat.
Yes, the thing that is missing is any option to password protect/encrypt the files. Alternatively they could be backed up complete with Windows security settings, which if I remember the tool I used some 5 years ago, on XP, before I switched to ATI, used to do.
To be honest, personally, I am not so worried about encryption and I would guess most users are not either. Not at least if they are using an internal backup drive that does not get moved around and so might get easily lost or stolen. Windows doesn't encrypt files by default. few users would have encrypted user files. But users DO use separate user accounts on Windows, which by default do not have access to each others files. It is entirely reasonable that they would expect those files to still have this basic protection (or the option for it), within ATI.
Of course, these days, if the files were password protected encryption should and would be provided too. Not providing this option AND configuring the backup in such a way that any user might have easy to other users stuff is unforgiveable IMO.
IMHO, encryption and security are well beyond the intended purpose of backup software. There are tools and operating system extensions specifically designed for that purpose.
My point is that simply turning on non-stop backup breaks the standard security between users, which Windows puts in place and opens files up to other users that would not otherwise be accessible. At the very least this risk needs to be made plain to people when they turn it on, but really, ATI needs to:
- leave Windows protection in place or
- restrict backups to administrators by default or
- provide password protection/encryption as it does for other backups
Jon,
Your comments are welcome, but the forums are not the place to provide feedback to Acronis. A direct line of communication with Acronis about feature requests and suggestions is here: http://www.acronis.com/support/feedback.html and if you still wish to post these suggestions on the forums, please do so here: http://forum.acronis.com/forum/35369. (Maybe both locations will get your suggestion looked at. :)
James
Thanks James, yes I agree.
I started out by genuinely trying to find out if 2013 improved this situation. It then expanded into a bit of a community discussion on whether this is an issue at all and what the resolution should be.
It may also serve as a warning to some (although most probably don't see this forum).
But yeah, I probably will raise it in one of the ways you suggest.
As I am the only person who uses my computer, I had not ever given this issue any thought. I see the problems this could create in a multi-user environment. I too, feel there should be some way other than from within Windows to keep these files private between users, or at least be able to password protect the NS backups. It could be easily implemented in NSB if Acronis was to create a folder on the destination drive that was based on the current user credentials. On a multi-user system, this would allow for more than one instance of NSB (one per user for example) with different settings for each user. I will also send feedback with my suggestions about this to Acronis.
James
Hello Everyone,
We got the point and we will get it resolved, one way or another. Thank you for pointing that out.
Thank you Roman for the quick response.
Hello Everyone,
Thank you very much for bringing this up, we really appreciate your comments.
You can always submit additional feedback about our software in the following sticky thread or from this link.
Thank you.