Explain air-gapped backups.

Explain air-gapped backups.

• A. A backup copy stored offline or offline network-isolated to prevent online ransomware from reaching it.
• B. Backups that are synchronized across all sites in real time.
• C. Backups stored on a public cloud without encryption.
• D. Backups that delete themselves after 24 hours.

Answer: (A)

Air-gapped backups rely on isolation: the backup copy is kept offline or in a network-isolated environment so it cannot be reached by connected systems. Because there’s no path from the active network to the backup, ransomware or other online threats can’t reach or encrypt those backups, letting you restore clean data from a safe point in time. In practice, this means storing backups on removable media or in a secured, physically isolated vault and regularly testing restores to ensure you can recover when needed. This offline nature also requires careful management of physical access and multiple restore points to guard against hardware failure or data corruption. Other concepts don’t fit air-gapped backups because they keep backups online or accessible over a network, or rely on encryption or automatic deletion that doesn’t provide true isolation from cyber threats.

Air-gapped backups rely on isolation: the backup copy is kept offline or in a network-isolated environment so it cannot be reached by connected systems. Because there’s no path from the active network to the backup, ransomware or other online threats can’t reach or encrypt those backups, letting you restore clean data from a safe point in time. In practice, this means storing backups on removable media or in a secured, physically isolated vault and regularly testing restores to ensure you can recover when needed. This offline nature also requires careful management of physical access and multiple restore points to guard against hardware failure or data corruption. Other concepts don’t fit air-gapped backups because they keep backups online or accessible over a network, or rely on encryption or automatic deletion that doesn’t provide true isolation from cyber threats.