Research Division Seminar
SMACK 22: Backups (& encryption) of your laptop data

Abstract

Gone are the days when we used workstations as our main day to day
computer. Backing-up your data has always been important, but the risks
were much fewer then. Today, when most of us use a laptop as our main
computer, the risks are much higher: added to human error, disk
failures, etc. we have to consider that losing, dropping or getting your
laptop stolen is a real possibility, which brings the added risk of
getting your sensitive data accessed by prying eyes.

In this talk I will share my overall backup plan. While my setting is
likely more complicated than that of most of you, hopefully you can mix
& match the strategies and tools that I use (mainly Borg, but also
Timeshift, Clonezilla, Syncthing, gocryptfs, ...) to suit your needs.

While a complete and thorough backup plan might take some time to
prepare and execute, you shouldn't postpone it. Something is better than
nothing!, and you can start with something very simple, which can be
very easy to implement, and can be improved over time.