Backup security

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RK - 27 Jan 2006 03:04 GMT

Hi,

Our current backup process writes backup to a network drive and that is
transferred to a DVD on a daily basis. How can we prevent people from
installing this backup on the DVD if the DVD is ever stolen? Can the
backups be "password protected" or restricted to prevent un-authorized
restore?

Thanks.

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Andrew J. Kelly - 27 Jan 2006 03:25 GMT

From BooksOnLine under BACKUP:

PASSWORD = { password | @password_variable }

Sets the password for the backup set. PASSWORD is a character string. If a
password is defined for the backup set, the password must be supplied to
perform any restore operation from the backup set.

This may prevent most people from restoring the backup but does nothing to
prevent anyone from reading the file with a simple hex editor. You should
look at one of the 3rd party backup tools that do encryption among other
things.

www.red-gate.com

www.quest.com

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Andrew J. Kelly SQL MVP

> Hi,
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> Thanks.

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Sam Hobbs - 27 Jan 2006 07:59 GMT

Windows has extensive cryptography capabilities that allow creation of
encryption and decryption software relatively easily. If relevant to your
requirements, there are many programs available at little or no cost that
can encrypt and decrypt the backup file(s) separately.

> Hi,
>
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>
> Thanks.

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