Crashplan does not require you to use its cloud storage, FWIW.

And after you've logged in to Crashplan, it's not clear to me that you can do a whole lot of damage via the website; the password used to encrypt your data is specified on the client side, and there is no reset mechanism for it. I mean, they could update the credit card settings, or modify the configuration options like excluded directories or send rates, but not a whole lot else.

But, but, it must be in the CLOUD, don't you know?

You can configure CrashPlan to encrypt your archives such that you must have your password to decrypt them. There's a big warning that if you lose your password you're screwed.

Also, you can just specify your own encryption key. Everything is encrypted locally.

Question: could an attacked delete my CrashPlan backup via the website?

It seems like they should be holding on to files for 30 days period or something. Does anyone know?

Doesn't look like they hold on to the data if you remove a computer from your CrashPlan account: http://support.crashplan.com/doku.php/how_to/remove_a_comput...

(I do like CrashPlan, but this seems to be common practice with data storage services.)

Removing the computers associated with a CrashPlan account and then cancelling the account looks like it'll cause a pretty big headache.