This simple three-copy strategy remains businesses’ toughest shield against ransomware and data loss – even as threats evolve and cloud reliance deepens – says Daniel Pearson, CEO at KnownHost. 

Cybercriminals are constantly searching for vulnerabilities to exploit and data loss can be devastating for businesses.

One report estimates that cyber incidents will cost the US over $639 billion in 2025, with costs projected to reach $1.82 trillion by 2028. These figures highlight the crucial importance of strong cybersecurity strategies to mitigate risks.

Despite being introduced in 2009, the 3-2-1 backup rule remains a fundamental best practice for safeguarding business data. This time-tested strategy helps organisations minimise the impact of data loss and recover quickly from cyber threats. Here’s how businesses can use the 3-2-1 backup rule to protect critical data in an evolving threat landscape.

What is the 3-2-1 backup rule?

The 3-2-1 backup rule is a simple yet effective principle designed to enhance data protection. Best practices for maintaining adequate backup of data include keeping three copies of data to ensure redundancy in case of failure. It also recommends utilising two different storage solutions to protect against hardware malfunctions and keeping one copy offsite to safeguard against disasters like ransomware attacks and natural disasters.

This method has been a long-standing best practice in IT security, providing organisations with resilience against various data threats.

Why is the 3-2-1 rule still relevant in today’s cyber threat landscape?

Cyber threats are constantly evolving, requiring cybersecurity professionals to keep up with a barrage of new threats. However, the 3-2-1 backup strategy is able to account for all potential threats by diversifying the way that data is stored and providing a range of failsafes.

While cloud services offer convenience, they are not immune to cyberattacks, outages, or misconfigurations. Relying solely on cloud storage increases the risk of data loss.

Ransomware attacks that target cloud backups have become increasingly widespread, highlighting major concerns that businesses are not fully safe from having their data held for ransom. One report found that 51% of ransomware attacks had attempted to target backups, too, highlighting the prevalence of this strategy. 

By targeting backups in a ransomware attack, cyber criminals increase their chances of receiving a ransom, as businesses have no accessible backup. A diversified backup strategy helps counteract these attacks and ensures that businesses are not forced to pay a ransom.

While digital transformation has been revolutionary, there are still benefits to keeping data backed up offline. Modern cyber threats are becoming increasingly sophisticated, so maintaining unchangeable backups that are physically disconnected from the internet prevents tampering or deletion by attackers.

Common backup mistakes businesses make

Even with a backup strategy in place, businesses often make these critical mistakes. One report revealed that in 2024, ransomware attackers received over $800 million in payments, revealing the extent of the vulnerabilities businesses face.

 One common error that businesses make is storing backups on the same network. If backups are kept on the same network as primary data, then ransomware can still encrypt them. This renders the backups useless.

While maintaining a separate copy of data offline is useful for maintaining data security, this is often a neglected part of data backups, with many businesses opting for cloud-only storage. In one report, 78% of business leaders revealed that they have adopted the cloud in most or all areas of their business.

It’s not just cyberattacks that leave businesses at risk. One report found that hardware failures accounted for 45% of data loss for small businesses. An offline backup provides an extra layer of security and ensures that businesses can mitigate the risks of cyberattacks or hardware failures.

Finally, an effective backup recovery procedure is only effective if it works. Regularly testing recovery procedures to ensure that they work is essential. Failing to regularly test backup processes could lead to unexpected failures during critical incidents.

How to implement the 3-2-1 rule in a modern cybersecurity strategy

To effectively apply the 3-2-1 backup rule, businesses should ensure that their data is stored across multiple mediums, such as local storage, cloud providers, and offline backups, to reduce risk.

Businesses can use AI-powered solutions to regularly maintain backups, monitor for anomalies and prevent cyber threats from compromising data integrity.

Finally, compliance is another major factor for businesses to consider. Many regulations, like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe or the global Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) require businesses to implement reliable backup and disaster recovery strategies.  

Following the 3-2-1 rule helps demonstrate due diligence and minimises liability in the event of a breach.