As with every software which can access your site as a whole, Akeeba Backup needs to control who's got access to its backup functionality. Akeeba Backup fully supports Joomla's access control features, allowing you to set specific permissions for specific user groups. You can change this behavior from the component's Options button in the Control Panel page - just like with any other Joomla! component.

The front-end backup feature is a different story. Since it has to be available to unattended scripts which can't use cookies and interactive user authentication, a different approach was taken. Instead of requiring the user to have logged in with Joomla! it uses a simple "secret word" authentication model. Because this "secret word" is transmitted in clear text we strongly advise against using it over anything else than a local network (for example, an automated tool running on the same host as the web server). If you have to use it over the Internet we strongly advise using a secure protocol connection (HTTPS) with a valid commercially acquired certificate.