Paperkey

A reasonable way to achieve a long term backup of OpenPGP (GnuPG, PGP, etc) keys is to print them out on paper. Paper and ink have amazingly long retention qualities - Far longer than the magnetic or optical means that are GeneRally used to back up computer data. The goal with paper is not Secure Storage. There are countless ways to store something securely. A paper backup also isn`t a replacement for the usual machine Readable (tape, CD-R, DVD-R, etc) backups, but rather as an if-all-else-fails method of restoring a key. Most of the storage media in use today do not have particularly good long-term (measured in years to decades) retention of data. If and when the CD-R and/or tape cassette and/or USB key and/or hard drive the secret key is stored on becomes unusable, the paper copy can be used to restore the secret key.