The 3-2-1 Backup Rule: How to Beat Ransomware Without Paying a Cent
Ransomware negotiators will tell you the same thing every time: the victims who walk away without paying are not the ones with the best antivirus. They are the ones with a working backup. Everything else in security is about preventing an attack. Backup is the only control that decides how bad it is when prevention fails — and prevention eventually fails for everyone. What the 3-2-1 Rule Actually Means It is the oldest and most reliable backup principle in existence, and it survives because it defeats every common failure mode at once. 3 copies of your data. The original plus two backups. Two copies protect against one failure; three protect against the failure that happens while you are restoring from the second. 2 different types of media. Do not keep both backups on identical drives bought on the same day. Drives from the same batch fail at similar times. Mix an external drive with cloud storage, or an SSD with a network drive. 1 copy offsite. Fire, flood, and ...