remote-backups.com launches immutable backups for ransomware and deletion protection

remote-backups.com today announced the availability of immutable backups, a new feature that creates a separate, read-only copy of customer backup data to protect against ransomware, accidental deletion, and compromised credentials.

How it works

When a customer enables immutable backups on a datastore, a second PBS datastore is created on the same server. A sync job copies backup snapshots on a configurable schedule with the remove-vanished flag set to false, meaning deletions on the primary datastore (whether from prune jobs, manual deletion, or an attacker) do not propagate to the immutable copy.

Customers receive a dedicated API token with DatastoreReader permissions, granting read-only access to the immutable datastore. This token allows browsing and restoring backup snapshots but cannot modify or delete any data. All writes to the immutable datastore happen exclusively through the sync job, which runs under administrative credentials that the customer does not have access to.

Protection model

The feature addresses three common data loss scenarios:

• Ransomware: Even if an attacker compromises all customer-held credentials and deletes backup snapshots through the PBS API, the immutable copy remains untouched because it is controlled by a separate sync job with separate credentials.
• Human error: Misconfigured prune jobs, accidental bulk deletions, or scripts run against the wrong target do not affect the immutable copy, which maintains its own independent retention policy.
• Compliance: The separation of control between the primary datastore (customer-writable) and the immutable copy (customer-read-only) satisfies common regulatory requirements for backup integrity, including SOC 2 and ISO 27001 frameworks.

The immutable datastore supports independent retention policies (keep-last, keep-daily, keep-weekly, keep-monthly, keep-yearly), allowing customers to retain immutable snapshots longer than their primary datastore history.

Pricing

Immutable backups are priced at €3 per TB per month, billed per GB per hour based on actual storage usage on the immutable datastore. This differs from standard storage and geo-replication pricing, which are based on allocated datastore size in 100GB increments. Customers only pay for the bytes their immutable snapshots actually consume.

Safety mechanisms

Disabling immutable backups triggers a 24-hour grace period before any data is removed. The customer receives an email notification and can cancel the disable at any time during the grace period. This prevents both accidental and malicious disabling of the protection.

Availability

Immutable backups are available now for all datastores. Customers can enable the feature from their datastore settings page in the dashboard.

For more information, visit remote-backups.com or read the full announcement at remote-backups.com/blog/immutable-backups-now-available.