The FBI’s Internet Crime Center (IC3) received 467,361 complaints in 2019—nearly 1,300 every day according to its 2019 Internet Crime Report. The report goes on to say that losses to businesses and individual victims totaled more than $3.5 billion.
The costliest attacks? Compromised business emails and spoofing resulting in ransomware locking up vital systems or personal information. Add in hardware and software failures, natural disasters, and the new risks that come with a remote workforce and it’s clear your data is in danger. All of these risks should have anyone responsible for the security of his organization’s data deeply concerned. Mitigating these risks means preparing for disaster before it strikes.
To that end, most of us involved with IT are familiar with the 3-2-1 backup rule. It breaks down like this: keep at least 3 copies of your data, store 2 copies on different storage media, and make sure 1 of them is stored offsite.
With today’s greater risks the 3-2-1 rule has evolved into the 3-2-2 rule. (It really could be called the 3-2-1+1 rule, but we’re keeping things simple).
Here’s how the 3-2-2 rule breaks down:

- Keep 3 copies of your data
- Store 2 backup copies locally but on different devices
- Store 2 copies offsite (1 copy in a remote location + 1 copy to the cloud)
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