Three myths about backups

This is one of those topics that looks small until it costs you something. A few things about backups that get repeated more often than they get checked.

The cheapest security work is the boring kind done on a schedule. If it only works because one person remembers to do something, it does not work yet.

“It only matters for big sites”

An untested backup is a hope, not a backup. The reasoning matters more than the rule, because the rule has exceptions. The version that survives contact with a real deadline is the simple one.

“We can deal with it after launch”

Sometimes true, usually expensive. This is the sort of thing that compounds, quietly, in both directions.

“Our platform handles it”

Know how long a restore actually takes. Small and consistent beats large and occasional here. It rarely shows up as a line item, which is exactly why it slips.

How to tell if yours is fine

Security is a maintenance habit rather than a purchase, which is why it drifts. Three things worth confirming about backups before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• An untested backup is a hope, not a backup — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

If you are not sure where your systems currently stand on this, it takes us about an hour to find out.