Glossary Updates12 new terms added to the glossaries · October 2, 2026, 22:44 CEST
AI TechDocKnowledge

Glossary · OT cybersecurity

Backup and recovery

Also known as: Backup and restore

German: Datensicherung und Wiederherstellung

In industrial automation, backup and recovery is the practice of creating protected copies of control programs, configurations, recipes and system images and of restoring a system from them after failure, corruption or a cyberattack. It covers what is backed up, how often, where copies are stored and how restores are tested.

  • OT security

In one sentence

Backup and recovery protects PLC programs, configurations and system images and restores them after failure, corruption or a cyberattack.

Example

Each night, the plant's backup server collects the current PLC projects, drive parameters and HMI configurations and keeps an offline copy that ransomware on the office network cannot reach.

How it applies

  • Engineering: Scope includes PLC and safety controller programs, drive and robot parameters, HMI and SCADA projects, network device configurations and operating system images of industrial PCs. At least one copy should be kept offline or immutable so that an attack cannot encrypt it together with the plant.
  • Operation: Backups are only useful if they match the running state. Tie them to Change control so that every approved change creates a new, labeled backup.
  • Maintenance: Restores must be tested regularly (see Backup restore); an untested backup may be incomplete or unreadable with the current engineering software version.
  • Documentation: Service and maintenance manuals should explain which data a component holds, how to back it up and restore it, which software versions are required, and what must be checked after a restore, including safety-related parameters and checksums.

Backup and recovery vs. disaster recovery

Backup and recovery is about data and configurations of individual systems. Disaster recovery is the planned restoration of whole services or sites after a major event and uses backups as one input.

By knowledge.aitechdoc.world · Published September 26, 2026 · Last reviewed

Source: AI TechDoc Knowledge editorial definition, based on IEC 62443 and industrial cybersecurity practice

Definitions follow the cited standards and specifications. Where a source is a copyrighted publication, such as an ISO, IEC or EN standard, the definition is a close paraphrase, not a verbatim quotation, so as not to infringe copyright. We recommend reading the original publication. The sections “How it applies” are editorial commentary by AI TechDoc Knowledge and are not part of any standard.

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