Backup Recovery Quick Test

About this program

When did you last actually restore a backup? Audit your backup cadence, immutability, off-site copies and recovery time.

Risks addressed

Critical Ransomware encrypts production AND backups
Critical Restore process untested u2014 fails when needed
High Backups stolen and leaked (unencrypted at rest)
High No off-site copy if primary site destroyed

Controls (7)

Backup policy with RPO/RTO defined
High

This control requires the organization to define and document Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and Recovery Time Objective (RTO) for critical systems and data assets, establish backup procedures aligned to these objectives, and ensure backups are performed at frequencies sufficient to…

How to test + evidence

Testing procedure: Review documented RPO/RTO per system tier.

Evidence to collect: Backup policy document.
Tier-1 systems backed up daily
Critical

This control ensures that systems designated as Tier-1 (typically mission-critical production systems, customer-facing services, or systems containing sensitive data) undergo automated backup operations at least once every 24 hours. Backups must complete successfully, be stored in accordance with data classification…

How to test + evidence

Testing procedure: Confirm daily successful backup for the last 30 days for Tier-1 systems.

Evidence to collect: Backup job report.
Backups stored off-site / off-account
Critical

This control requires that backup data be stored in a physically separate location or logically isolated account from the primary production environment. Off-site storage protects against facility-level disasters (fire, flood, natural disasters), while off-account storage protects against cloud account compromise,…

How to test + evidence

Testing procedure: At least one backup copy is logically + physically separated from prod (different account/region).

Evidence to collect: Off-site backup config.
Backups immutable / WORM
High

Immutable or Write Once Read Many (WORM) backups ensure that backup data cannot be modified, encrypted, or deleted for a defined retention period after creation. This control uses storage technologies or software features that lock backup files at the storage…

How to test + evidence

Testing procedure: Tier-1 backups protected against deletion / overwrite for the retention period.

Evidence to collect: Immutability policy + ransomware test.
Restore tested at least quarterly
Critical

This control requires organizations to perform quarterly testing of their backup restoration processes across all critical systems and data classifications. Testing involves selecting representative backup sets, executing the restore procedure in a non-production environment, verifying data integrity and completeness, and…

How to test + evidence

Testing procedure: Show the most recent successful restore test — full data integrity check.

Evidence to collect: Restore test report.
Encryption at rest for backups
High

Encryption at rest for backups ensures that all backup data stored on disk, tape, cloud storage, or other media is protected using strong cryptographic algorithms (e.g., AES-256) before being written to the storage medium. This control applies to full, incremental,…

How to test + evidence

Testing procedure: Backup repository encrypted; keys not co-located with backup data.

Evidence to collect: Encryption config.
Backup access restricted to dedicated role
High

This control restricts access to backup data, backup management interfaces, and backup restoration functions to a dedicated role or group, separate from general system administration. It enforces least-privilege access by ensuring that only personnel with explicit backup management responsibilities can…

How to test + evidence

Testing procedure: Production admins cannot delete backups; backup admins use separate accounts.

Evidence to collect: RBAC export.