Data Encryption - do it right

Data protection is key to your business and we make it our priority at Backupta.

There are many mechanisms to protect your data. Data encryption is one of them, and that’s what this article will focus on.

Let’s distinguish between three types of encryption:

1. Encryption at-rest: Disk encryption at rest is a security measure that protects data on a hard drive or other storage device by scrambling it so that it cannot be read without a key. This helps to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive data, even if the device is lost or stolen.
2. Encryption in transit: Encryption in transit is a way of scrambling data so that it can't be read by anyone who intercepts it. This is done by using a mathematical algorithm to turn the data into a string of gibberish.
3. In-app encryption: In-app encryption prevents anyone accessing the data “in-app” to be able to read the backup data (e.g. Github web interface, git clone).

Now, let’s see how data encryption is done at Backupta.

Data encryption with Git

Backupta was originally built on Git because doing a diff between two backups was easy. With a simple “git diff”, we know what changed between two backups.

First of all, Backupta reads your data from your Okta tenant and stores it in your Git repository. Nothing is stored on our side:

The table below sums up how your data is encrypted with the different Git providers supported by Backupta:

Data encryption with AWS S3

Backupta will move from Git-based backups to AWS S3-based backups. While the main drivers are governance, encryption and scalability, there are other benefits from this move. The table below sums up how your data will be encrypted with this architecture:

This feature is expected to be delivered in Q4 2023. It will be delivered on AWS first and then extended to GCP and Azure.