This policy establishes the rules for creating, storing, and testing backups of your critical business data. It provides a vital safety net against data loss from hardware failure, human error, or cyberattacks like ransomware.
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Ensure Business Continuity: Define clear procedures to restore data and systems quickly after a disruption, minimizing costly downtime.
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Protect Against Ransomware: Maintain secure, offline, or immutable backups to ensure you can recover your data without paying a ransom.
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Guarantee Data Recoverability: Mandate regular restore tests to verify that your backups are working correctly and data can actually be recovered when you need it most.
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Meet Compliance Requirements: Satisfy key data availability and resilience requirements under ISO 27001:2022, GDPR, NIS2, and DORA.
Read Full Overview
The 'Backup and Restore Policy - SME' is an essential document for small to medium enterprises (SMEs) focused on ensuring business continuity and data integrity. This policy provides a comprehensive framework for performing and managing backups, establishing clear rules for data storage, recovery, and protection against loss due to technical failures, accidental deletions, or cyber incidents. It is particularly tailored for organizations with limited IT infrastructure, offering a structured approach that aligns with ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification requirements. For SMEs, this policy is invaluable in minimizing risks associated with data loss, providing peace of mind that operations can quickly resume after an incident. It emphasizes the importance of regular testing and validation of backup processes to confirm their effectiveness.
What's Inside
- Backup Plan & Scope
- Backup Frequency Schedules
- Data Retention Rules
- Secure Storage & Encryption
- Restore Testing Procedures
- Roles & Responsibilities
- Risk Management
- Compliance & Enforcement
Built for Leaders, By Leaders
This policy provides a practical and defensible backup strategy, giving you peace of mind that your business can withstand and recover from unexpected data loss. It was authored by a security leader to be a practical framework that stands up to auditor scrutiny.
Authored by an expert holding:
Framework Compliance
🛡️ Supported Standards & Frameworks
This product is aligned with the following compliance frameworks, with detailed clause and control mappings.
| Framework | Covered Clauses / Controls |
|---|---|
| ISO/IEC 27001:2022 | 8.1 |
| ISO/IEC 27002:2022 | 5.298.13 |
| NIST SP 800-53 Rev.5 | CP-9MP-6 |
| EU GDPR | Art. 5(1)(f)Art. 32(1)(c) |
| EU NIS2 | Art. 21(2)(c) |
| EU DORA | Art. 10(1) |
| COBIT 2019 | BAI04.05DSS04.07 |
Part of a Complete ISMS Toolkit
This policy is one of 37 documents in our complete toolkit. When implemented as a set, our framework helps you achieve comprehensive compliance across major standards.
100%
ISO 27001:2022
95%
NIST
88%
NIS2
75%
DORA
70%
GDPR
Related Policies
This foundational policy is directly linked to the following organizational security policies to ensure comprehensive alignment and traceability across the ISMS.
P2S - Governance Roles & Responsibilities Policy
Assigns clear authority for backup oversight and policy enforcement.
P13S - Data Classification and Labeling Policy
Helps prioritize which data must be backed up based on classification.
P14S - Data Retention and Disposal Policy
Defines how long backup data should be stored and securely deleted.
P17S - Data Protection and Privacy Policy
Ensures backup handling of personal data aligns with privacy regulations.
P30S - Incident Response Policy
Covers procedures if data recovery is required after a breach or outage.
About This Policy
A Backup and Restore Policy is a critical document for ensuring business continuity and data resilience. For Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), where data loss can be catastrophic, this policy establishes a formal plan for regularly backing up critical information and, just as importantly, testing the ability to restore it. It defines what data needs to be backed up, how often, where it should be stored, and who is responsible for managing the process.
This policy is designed to be a practical guide for SMEs to meet the requirements of standards like ISO 27001:2022 and regulations such as GDPR, which mandates the ability to restore data in a timely manner. By implementing clear backup schedules, secure storage protocols (including encryption), and regular restore tests, you can protect your business against data loss from ransomware, hardware failure, or human error. It provides an auditable framework that demonstrates due diligence and gives you confidence in your ability to recover from a disaster.
