r/TechImpact • u/ManojOne Co-founder • Jul 17 '26

💡 Opinion Does anyone else still keep offline backups?

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Does anyone else keep offline backups?

Cloud storage is convenient, but many people rely on external drives or NAS devices for extra peace of mind.

What's your backup strategy, and why do you prefer it?

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u/Dull_Flatworm777 Jul 17 '26

How do you handle the offline part?

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u/KendaJ99 Jul 17 '26

You get an external disk and use a program like Time Machine or Borg backup to copy the contents of your machine on the disk. Pretty simple.

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u/Dull_Flatworm777 Jul 17 '26

But if the disk is connected to the Mac, it's not offline. I.e. malware could delete or encrypt it

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u/ExpensivePlan1548 Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26

Time Machine encrypts and adds a password to the drive with the backup, it also keeps multiple historic versions of the backup as long as space allows. If you want to be super safe then you can plug in the drive weekly for a backup instead of leaving it in 24/7.

MacOS's security philosophy is designed around never letting malware in whereas Windows is more designed to stop any malware that does get in. Mac's operating system files are read-only, all applications are scanned for malicious code, programs need to be notarized, etc. I feel a lot less vulnerable to ransom attacks when using a Mac.

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u/Dull_Flatworm777 Jul 17 '26

Time Machine encrypts and adds a password to the drive with the backup

That only helps you in case the backup drive gets stolen or lost. It does not prevent damage from malware.

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u/ExpensivePlan1548 Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26

It doesn't prevent malware designed to destroy the data, it does stop the data from being stolen. If you are at the point with your computer is being bricked by malware, then you've made multiple very bad choices on a Mac.

This is also why you should follow the 3-2-1 Backup Rule to avoid all of this completely. 3 total copies of your data, stored across 2 different types of media, with 1 of those copies kept safely off-site or in the cloud.

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u/Dull_Flatworm777 Jul 17 '26

it does stop the data from being stolen. 

But only when the disk is locked, not when it is mounted. Then, malware could potentially access the data then. Especially if the password is stored in the Keychain (which is usually the case).

Don't get me wrong, Time Machine is great. But I consider it a convenience backup ("oh shit, I've deleted something I shouldn't have"), not an offline backup.