Cloud backup issue - asked for my backup password and other irrelevant (?) info - is that normal?
I had a problem where my cloud space (1TB although another backup takes 250GB so really only 750GB available) was being all used up but the actual size of my backup was much less (~420GB). I tried a clean up and got rid of any versions above 1, and any thing later than 1 day, guessing that would cover anything but the one latest version of a file. The cleanup reclaimed insignificant space. I raised a ticket/email.
Some of what I was asked for didn't sit well with me and I'm sharing partly to check my view and partly to provide you insight should you be in a similar position yourselves.
I was asked for the password for my online backup. Not sure if I need to comment any more but there's no way I'd provide that and would expect some initial investigation on Acronis side without resorting to needing nor asking for this info. If it's truly needed to be able to resolve the issue then something feels wrongly architected.
I was also asked to run a system report and provide those report files. I asked Acronis to narrow down what they wanted to see since those report files scan everything about your system (bios, physical disks, logical disks, file structure, etc) and it feels like a fishing exercise rather than competent pros knowing where they need to look first.
Then they asked me for the contents of 2 Acronis folders on the Harddisk. Again there might been some useful info for troubleshooting but the folders also include way more information.
If I was having issues with a hard disk backup or the program itself behaving strangely then different info might be relevant but my issue was on their cloud - taking more space than the actual stuff being backed up. How some fo the local information is relevant to that I don't know and they did not explain.
In the end I just deleted the cloud backup and rebacked up but that's a lot of data to send up the pipe and if this happens again, if I have to reupload again I might as well do that with another cloud backup provider.
Yeah, that sounds like trouble. At work, policy is to never give your password to anyone, for anything - even IT support. That protects your data and avoids potential liability to the company. Worse case, they should involve you in the trouble shooting from a remote console and have you enter the password when needed. Yes, it is a bit more inconvenient, but not as inconvenient as you losing your personal and private data to some potentially disgruntled or rogue employee. I've never been asked for password when troubleshooting with Acronis and this sounds like someone probably breaking protocol.
The system report does collect system info, but no more than other applications. You can view the report content yourself by creating it and extracting the contents from the .zip. most of the files are text or log files you can review in notepad.
I just went through this cleanup issue in cloud with one of my own backups too. Mine was also showing much larger data used than it should have been and cleaning up to 1 day did nothing to reduce the size. I ended up deleting the entire thing and starting over, going from 200GB back down to 4GB (the data rarely changes in this folder and have no idea how it great so large). I am not happy with the behavior as it's happened more than once to me now too. My new backup is ok again, but I am keeping a close eye on it. I would say this is not just a one off occurrence and is probably happening to others too - I'm a little guarded about cloud backup reliability based on my experience and others like you in the forum. Perhaps it's not the norm, but the fact that it's happened to me more than once and reported in the forum a few times just in the last week or so, is not boosting my confidence. My local backups are great, but the cloud behavior is concerning.
The requested folders/files contain:
- .crt files. Private keys? If so then that shouldn't be requested or leaving my machine
- various passwords in some encoding (passwords for local encrypted backups?)
- windows application and system log file .... for a cloud backup space issue? even then just ask me to look for something specific
- what upnp devices my computer has found and IP addresses
- lower level disk info, geometry, sectors, partitions ...again for a cloud backup space issue
- bios, network info and devices, dir structures,
- host file, trace routes - again no connectivity problem since it is backing up to the cloud but even still, not even a diagnosis of a network problem
- what files are trusted by Acronis Ransomware protection and their location
all together this information contains a hell of a lot of info: public ip address, internal IPs, OS type and version, dir structures, and other stuff that could make a hack event much easier. This info is either by email (unencrypyted) or to some 'cloud folder' after which who knows how long it stays or who can get access to it. Even if the chances are low it goes against the general advice of keeping aggregate information divulged to a minimum. A company like Acronis should be able to perform a least some more specific diagnosis and troubleshooting based on the reported problem.
If people just willingly hand over this information then we are many years yet away from widespread security hygiene.