How to back up a small business with the 3-2-1 rule
Three copies, two kinds of storage, one off-site: a simple rule that keeps ransomware or a dead hard drive from ending your business.
By Luis Freitas
Illustration: CybersecurityNews.ca
At a glance
Audience
Small business
Difficulty
Beginner
Time needed (minutes)
60 min
Last reviewed
What you need
- An external drive or network storage (NAS)
- A cloud backup subscription
Key takeaways
- Keep 3 copies on 2 types of storage, 1 off-site
- Protect backups with versioning or immutable storage
- Test a restore every three months
Ransomware, theft and plain hardware failure all end the same way if you have no backup. The 3-2-1 rule is the simplest way to make sure one bad day cannot wipe out your business data.
The rule
Keep 3 copies of important data, on 2 different types of storage, with 1 copy off-site and disconnected from your network.
Steps
- List what matters: accounting files, customer records, shared drives, email and the applications you cannot work without.
- Set up a local backup to an external drive or a small network storage device that runs every night.
- Add an off-site copy with a reputable cloud backup service. If your clients expect it, choose one that can keep data in Canada.
- Protect the backups: turn on versioning or immutable storage so ransomware cannot encrypt or delete old copies, and use a separate account with multi-factor authentication.
- Test a restore every three months. A backup you have never restored is a hope, not a plan.
