restic

restic at a glance

restic is a popular open-source backup program with encryption, deduplication and many storage backends — widely used for reliable, self-controlled backups. restic ships regular releases; as the tool guarding your backups, keeping it current and correctly configured matters.

For admins restic is security-relevant in a specific way: it encrypts backups, so the repository password/key is critical — lose it and the backups are unrecoverable; leak it and they're exposed. Keep restic current for backend and fix updates, and source it officially. The repository format is stable across versions. The real work is operational: schedule backups, apply a retention policy (forget/prune), and — crucially — test restores regularly, since an untested backup isn't a backup. Store repositories off the source system (ideally append-only) so ransomware can't delete them. Track releases for features and fixes.