Disaster recovery
A strategy for recovering from a breach that results in data loss should be part of your security plan.
There are several backup utilities available for the Linux desktop user and your distribution will have one installed by default. Ubuntu, for example, ships with Déja Dup that you can also install on other distributions such as Fedora, OpenSUSE and Linux Mint.
Almost every backup application will ask you to point it to the location where you want to house your backups. Depending on the tool you’re using, this can be a local hard disk, a remote location accessible via SSH or FTP, or a web-based storage service, such as Amazon S3. You’ll also have to mark files and directories that you want to include in the backup. Some tools will also help you set up a backup schedule to automate the process. Tools such as Déja Dup will also enable you to encrypt your backups.
While Déja Dup and the like take the pain out of setting up the actual data backup process, a crucial part of the process is preparing for it. For starters, you need to decide on a location for storing the backed-up data. If you have multiple disks and a spare computer you can even set up your own network attached storage (aka a NAS) device using software like OpenMediaVault.
The kind of data you wish to back up also influences the choice of storage medium. You’ll also need to work out the appropriate backup methodology. Do you want to back up manually, or automatically based on a schedule? The correct backup frequency varies based on the kind and value of data being safeguarded. Depending on the size of the files, it might not be a good idea to back them up completely every day, either.