2006 · 13 citations · 8 references
ComputingComputer ScienceComputer SystemsData ManagementStorage SystemsWeb SecurityBackup SystemsCachingData BackupData RedundancyData RestorationData Storage SystemsBackupBackup StrategiesWeb Storage Security
Backing up important data is essential because failures, errors, viruses, theft, or physical damage can cause irreversible loss, and many records—such as financial data and contacts—are difficult or costly to replace. The paper proposes and compares two free Web‑storage backup methods—one using search‑engine caches and another using mailboxes—to evaluate their feasibility, security, and flexibility. The authors developed CrawlBackup, which packages data for web crawlers to store in search‑engine caches, and MailBackup, which distributes redundant copies to internet mail service inboxes, enabling restoration even if the original data is lost. Both backup systems have been successfully employed since mid‑2005, demonstrating their practical viability.
Backing up important data is crucial. A variety of causes can lead to data loss, such as disk failures, administration errors, virus infiltration, theft, and physical damage to equipment. Users and businesses have important information that is difficult to replace, such as financial records and contacts. Reliable backups are crucial because some data cannot be replaced, while recreating other data can be expensive in terms of time and money. We propose two methods which leverage various types of free Web storage to provide simple, reliable, and free backup solutions.The first method is based on the storage of data in the caches of Internet search engines. We have developed CrawlBackup, a tool which prepares and provides the data for Web crawlers and can then restore the data from the Internet even if all the data on the original computer is unavailable. The second method, called MailBackup, stores redundant copies of the important data in the mailboxes of Internet mail services. We have successfully used these backup systems since the middle of 2005. In this paper we discuss and compare these methods, their feasibility of deployment, their security, and their flexibility.
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