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How is 3-2-1 Backup Policy now Out-dated?


With the growing trend of ransomware attacks, it has become important for individuals and organizations to adopt efficient backup policies and procedures.

According to reports, in year 2022 alone, around 236.1 million ransomware attacks have been detected globally. Cyber criminals have evolved into using innovative tactics malware, cryptography and network infiltration to prevent companies from accessing their data. As a result of these emerging ransomware attacks, companies are required to strengthen their security and data backup procedures which compel companies to financial constrains in exchange for the release of their systems and backups.

Current Status of Backups

Systems compromised with ransomware can be swiftly restored with the right backups and disaster recovery techniques, thwarting the attackers. However, Hackers now know how to lock and encrypt production files while simultaneously deleting or destroying backups. Obviously, their targets would not have to pay the ransom if they can restore their computers from backups.

Conventional The 3-2-1 Backup Policy

The 3-2-1 backup policy has been in place for many years and is considered the "gold standard" for guaranteeing the security of backups. Three data copies must be produced utilizing two different types of storage media, with at least one backup occurring offsite. The backup should ideally also be immutable, which means that it cannot be deleted, altered, or encrypted within the time period specified.

The "two diverse media" has typically indicated one copy on traditional hard drives and the other copy on tape for the past 20 years or so. The most popular methods for achieving immutability involved physically storing the tape in a cardboard box or destroying the plastic tab on the tape cartridge, which rendered the tape unwritable. While most often done by replicating the backup files between two company data centers to create the offsite copy.

Growing Popularity of Cloud Security

The cloud has grown in popularity as a place to store backups in recent years. Since its launch, the majority of businesses have reconsidered the conventional 3-2-1 policy. The majority of firms are using a mixed strategy. Backups are first sent to a local storage appliance because the cloud has a limited amount of bandwidth, which is typically faster than backing up directly to the cloud. In the same way, restoring from backups works. Always, restoring from a local copy will be quicker. However, what if the local backup was deleted by the hackers? in that case, one may have to turn to the copy stored in the cloud.

Today, the majority of cloud storage providers offer "immutable" storage, which is secured and cannot be changed or deleted. You actually need this immutability to prevent hackers from eliminating your backups. Additionally, since the cloud is always "off-site," it satisfies one of the key demands of the 3-2-1 backup scheme. one may still have the cloud backup even if there is a fire, flood, or other event that damages the local backup. People no longer see a need for two different types of media, especially the third copy. 

Replicating the cloud copy to a second cloud site, preferably one that is at least 500 kilometers away, is the practice used most frequently nowadays. The two cloud copies ought to be immutable.

In comparison to on-premises storage systems, cloud storage providers typically offer substantially higher levels of data durability. Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Wasabi have all chosen the gold standard of 11 nines of durability. If you do the arithmetic, 11 nines of durability indicates that you will statistically lose one object every 659,000 years if a user offers you one million objects to store. Because of this, you never hear about cloud storage providers losing client information. 

The likelihood of losing data due to equipment failure is nearly zero if there are two copies spread across two distinct cloud data centers. The previous requirement of "two different media" is no longer necessary at this level of durability.

Moreover, alongside the added durability, the second cloud copy considerably improves backup data availability. Although the storage system may have an 11-nine durability rating, communications issues occasionally cause entire data centers to fall offline. A data center's availability is typically closer to 4 nines. If one cloud data center goes offline, one can still access their backups at the second cloud data center since they consist of two independent cloud copies. 

One may anticipate that the local copy will be lost during the course of a ransomware attack, thus they would be depending on cloud restoration. A company may as well shut down until the backups are accessed if the cloud goes offline for any reason. This thus makes two having two cloud copies a good investment.  

3-2-1 Backup Strategy: How Does It Work?

 


It is well known that the majority of businesses are aware of the importance of backing up their data regularly. Data storage policies can arguably be one of the most significant aspects of ensuring that a business is not only protected against ransomware.  IT infrastructure can also prevent loss of data even in the case of a single hardware failure. 

There is a problem with simply having multiple copies of data because that is not always enough to guarantee data security. If they are both stored on the same server, the possibility exists that both files might be deleted in the case of one incident. 

The 3-2-1 backup strategy is one of the most effective ways to protect critical files, which can be followed by anyone. Why should you care about it and what are the benefits it can provide for your business? 

What Is the 3-2-1 Backup Strategy?


The 3-2-1 backup strategy is a method of storing data that consists of three files and two folders. There is a system designed to protect data in the event of a security breach or certain natural disasters which may cause data loss. A 3-2-1 strategy recommends storing three copies of your data. Ideally, two of them should be stored in different types of storage. One copy should be kept off-site so that you retain a copy of your data if anything goes wrong.

Consequently, it is much more difficult for a single event to cause data loss due to large outbreaks of malicious software. Below you will find a step-by-step guide on how each of these steps should be carried out.

Make sure you have three copies of your data as three copies are considered necessary to ensure that your data can always be recovered in case something goes wrong. Generally, one primary copy should be kept which is easy to access, and two backup copies should be kept which can be used to serve as backups. This means that there are three copies in total.

Make use of two different storage devices


When all of your data is stored on the same type of storage device, it makes it more likely that all of your devices will be unable to run at the same time if one of them fails. There are several ways to reduce the likelihood of this, one of which is to store data in at least two different kinds of storage. There are various storage types available in the market, including hard drives, network-attached storage, tape drives, and cloud storage.

Make sure you keep a copy off-site as well


Whether you have multiple copies of all your data or not, if all of your data is stored in the same location, then a natural disaster can cause you to lose all of them, regardless of how many copies you have. A company with only one location is also more likely to be a victim of a security breach. 

Make sure you keep a copy off-site as well


Whether you have multiple copies of all your data or not, if all of your data is stored in the same location, then a natural disaster can cause you to lose all of it, regardless of how many copies you have. A company with only one location is also more likely to be a victim of a security breach.

There are various storage types available in the market, including hard drives, network-attached storage, tape drives, and cloud storage.

Regardless of the size of the business, all businesses should have a backup plan


Keeping your information safe depends largely on putting a backup in place to ensure your information is safe. There are some backup strategies that, unfortunately, do not provide adequate protection against the loss of critical data. A backup alone is not enough, you also need to consider how and where you save them along with how and where you protect them from threats.

The 3-2-1 backup approach ensures that there are three copies of everything, using different storage types and locations. As a result, it is very unlikely that one incident will be able to damage all of your data in a single incident.