Backups
In the article on backups in the countermeasures section, we described why backups are so important. Here we want to show how backups can be made.
Backup of what?
Of course, everyone has to think for themselves about what needs to be backed up. Here are a few common examples:
- Passwords
- Contact details (phone numbers, email addresses, etc.)
- Official documents
- Texts you have written yourself (or others have written)
- Logs (if necessary)
- Chats (if necessary)
- Images (photos, etc.)
How to back up
There are, of course, many ways to make backups. From simple copying and operating system functions to powerful programs such as borg/rsync, Kopia, or others.
Only back up to encrypted data carriers!
Copy manually
The simplest way to back up is, of course, to simply insert a USB stick into the computer and copy your important files (user folder) to it, or to copy all folders from the file manager on your mobile phone to it. However, this can be very inefficient, as new data that needs to be backed up is constantly being created. Then you have to evaluate each time which files and folders need to be copied again.
- Evaluate what needs to be backed up each time
- Not automated (you have to remember to do it yourself)
- All data must be copied over each time (takes a long time)
Native backup functions
MacOS
MacOS makes it very easy for users to make regular backups. The in-house tool is called Time Machine. Apple’s own instructions are very easy to understand.
All you need is a storage medium that is large enough. In this case, large enough means at least twice the size of the data to be backed up.
- Configure once, then just connect the storage medium each time
- Fast: Files that were already in the previous backup and are still unchanged are skipped.
- Depending on your settings,
Time Machinecan keep multiple backups, so you can restore different versions of you files (yesterday, last month, and last year, for example). Again, the point above applies here: nothing is stored twice. - Automatically deletes old backups that are replaced in the new run
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