3-2-1 Backup Strategy

Ransomware is expected to continue to increase faster this year than in previous years. While keeping your Antivirus software and application software patched and up to date is critical, most security experts suggest all businesses will experience a ransomware attack at some point. The only real protection to ransomware is a good back-up strategy.

Backup experts are recommending companies follow the 3-2-1 Backup strategy. This means keeping 3 copies of your data, 2 of which are local but on different mediums and at least 1 copy off-site. This strategy will also benefit your disaster recovery needs.

Various methods for redundant on-site back-up are readily available so depending on the amount of storage you can look at anything from a Network-Attached Storage (NAS) to external hard drives to a second back-up server.

For holding your off-site back-up storage there are two primary methods:

1)     Portable Storage – using portable storage is a simple physical way to make sure your critical data is protected and will help facilitate your disaster recovery needs. Portable storage can be tape, disk or USB Drives. Depending on the amount of data will drive the need to one or the other method. However, with USB drive sizes growing, this may be one of the better options.

2)     Cloud Storage – using Cloud Storage is becoming an increasingly popular approach. While there is a monthly cost to this approach, Cloud Storage can be purchased from many of the major players at reasonable rates. As well, Cloud Storage can be automated today allowing you to run this as needed and you can run multiple back-ups during the day if needed. The main drawback of this approach is the amount of bandwidth you have available to upload your data.

To protect your Miracle Service data we recommend you back-up your actual database back-up file (.bak) as well as your entire MiracleDB folder located on your server.

Creating and running a back-up strategy does not need to be costly, but NOT having one will prove to be very costly when hit by Ransomware. Do not hesitate in getting this strategy going and verifying the integrity of the back-up data as well.