Best Backup Software with AES 256-bit Encryption

If you have been searching for backup software lately (or even related software such as VPN or file archiving tools) then you might have noticed that some software companies make a point of promoting the fact that their offering makes use of AES 256-bit encryption? Naturally, this might have left you wondering what exactly is this AES 256-bit technology and how does it help in protecting valuable data?

Let’s start with what AES 256-bit encryption actually is, put simply, it is a method for “scrambling” the information within your files and folders in such a way that they cant be read by anyone else if (for whatever reason) these files found their way into the wrong hands. This kind of obfuscation can be really useful if, for example, you lost or had stolen a laptop or external hard drive or even became the victim of a cyber attack (e.g. a malware attack) which might have allowed the cyber attacker in question to gain access to your data!

NB – Just as a side note here, if you make use of a third party cloud storage service then the security of your data will always be dependant upon the security applied by the cloud operators themselves, if they are subject to a cyber attack then it could be your data which gets stolen! As such, it is always recommended to make use of strong encryption when backing up data to a cloud storage provider!

Whenever making use of AES encryption, you will need to set a personal password in order to actually encrypt the data, this password should ideally be long, not in use anywhere else and make use of both upper and lower case letters, numbers and special characters in order to make guessing it very difficult (thus ensuring it provides the maximum protection). Once a password is set it is also VERY IMPORTANT that you do not forget this password, ideally make use of password manager software, not only for generating a secure password to begin with but also for storing it safely once it is in use protecting your data.

NB – If you forget or loose an encryption password then you could loose access to all of your data! With this in mind, please be very careful when using encryption and make sure you don’t forget it!

At this point we know that AES encryption is a method for “scrambling” any data which passes through it and that we must remember a user generated password in order to decrypt or “unscramble” the data when the time comes to retrieve it. In the next section of this guide I will be looking at some of the encryption options you might come across when searching for backup software and what they might mean for you own backup security.

NB – You might sometimes see such encryption referred to as “zero knowledge”, this basically means that you are solely responsible for looking after your own encryption key (password) and that the software provider has no know knowledge of this key nor the contents of your encrypted files. It also means that said provider wont be able to “reset” an encryption password should you forget it!