Zoogmo Secure Peer To Peer Backups
Zoogmo offers a way to securely backup personal data and store that data on so called partner computers. Partner computers can be anything from USB devices, network computers or even the computer of a friend that you can access over the Internet.
The advantage of this approach is that the backup will be stored in encrypted form on an external computer or device so that it remains accessible in the case of a computer crash.
If the local hard drive fails, then all data on it may become inaccessible. If you have saved your backups on it, those may not be available anymore as well.
Local backups on devices such as USB Flash Drives are an option, but if your house burns down, they too are not the best option.
Distributed backups, on a friend's computer on the other hand, or in a different location, may be the best option in this case.
Zoogmo backups can be scheduled to run automatically in the background. Prior to using the software you need to create an account on the Zoogmo website. Those information are used to encrypt the data that is backed up on your computer which means that if you lose those information the backed up data will be lost as you cannot decrypt it anymore.
Zoogmo currently has some limitations. The maximum file size is only 50 Megabytes which may be not enough for users who would like to backup larger files. Since this is currently a beta it is most likely that the limit will be raised in the future.
While Zoogmo is great for creating external secure backups I would suggest to use a combination of True Crypt and an external hard drive if you want to backup your files locally. The advantage of course is that you do not need to connect to the Zoogma server at all before you can access your backups. Since there are virtually no information about the encryption used, it is not clear how secure Zoogmo's technology really is.
Take a look at this video that explains the concept of Zoogmo.
Update: Zoogmo is no longer available on the Internet. One alternative that you have is to use cloud hosting and encryption to store your data on the Internet so that it is always accessible but not accessible by anyone who is not authorized.
Check out storing data in the cloud with True Crypt and Dropbox for one option that you have to do just that.
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Martin, thanks for telling your readers about Zoogmo. As you noted we are still in beta and as such are working on new features on a regular basis. Maximum file size will indeed go up in a future release. Check us out at http://www.zoogmo.com and start building your backup network!
I also want to tell you and your readers about our brand new Facebook application, “Zoogmo Backup”. Using this application users will be able to let their network of friends know they are looking for backup space on their computers. Down the road we will be adding the ability to remotely monitor and manage your backups by logging into your Facebook account from any computer.
Have a great one!
Dov Sugarman
CEO
Zoogmo