Backup and Restore

Overview

Backup and Restore is the controlled creation of recoverable copies of data, configurations, keys, software, and system state together with verified procedures for returning them to an approved operating condition. The control exists to maintain or restore critical services and trustworthy state when attacks, failures, data loss, dependency disruption, or capacity exhaustion occur. A backup is not effective merely because a copy exists; recoverability depends on integrity, completeness, dependencies, credentials, documentation, and tested restoration. It should be interpreted alongside Air-Gapped Backup because the concepts can affect the same decision without representing the same control, event, or risk.

The workflow defines critical functions, recovery objectives, dependencies, degraded modes, capacity assumptions, failover, restoration order, and decision authority. Exercises should include partial failure, unavailable providers, damaged credentials, stale data, and reconciliation after service returns. In this context, programs define recovery objectives, retention, isolation, encryption, ownership, replication, deletion protection, restoration order, validation checks, exercises, and evidence that recovered services reconcile with authoritative records.

It should connect the term to Payment State Snapshot where that relationship changes access, transaction treatment, investigation, communication, or recovery.

Records should retain backup or configuration versions, integrity results, test dates, recovery steps, incident timelines, decisions, communications, restored-state validation, unresolved gaps, and proof that transactions were neither lost nor duplicated. Dependencies and runbooks need review after meaningful change.

Useful measures include availability, detection and recovery time, restoration success, backup age, objective attainment, degraded volume, failed dependencies, unreconciled records, exercise findings, and repeat incidents.

The relationship with Digital Forensics and Incident Response (DFIR) should be documented where it affects residual risk or control ownership.