Original author(s) | Acronis |
---|---|
Stable release | |
Operating system | |
Platform | IA-32 and x86-64 |
Available in | English, French, German, Japanese, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Korean, Chinese Traditional, Chinese Simplified, Indonesian, Portuguese, Dutch |
Type | Data protection and backup software |
License | Proprietary software |
Website | www |
Acronis True Image is a proprietary backup, imaging, cloning and cybersecurity suite developed by Acronis International GmbH. [3] It can back up files, data, clone storage media and protects the system from ransomware. [4] [5] In 2021, the product was renamed to Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office before being renamed back to True Image in 2024. [6] [7]
The product can back up a computer, selected disks or selected files to a local location or to a data center operated by Acronis. [3] Data is stored within a proprietary image file.
It can create two types of backup archives: (1) files and folder backups (which consist of user-specified files and directories (but not the metadata of the disk or partition)) and (2) full system images (which consist of files, directories and disk metadata).
The software can perform full, differential and incremental backups:
Users can specify to store their backup archives in Acronis's data centers around the globe. [9]
Acronis True Image allows users to restore files from a full disk or a file-based archive using either a preinstallation media with Acronis on it or from within the user interface of the program. [10]
The software can create full disk backup archives of several file systems including: NTFS (Windows); FAT32 (Windows 9x and removable media); Macintosh systems (HFS+ and APFS) and Linux systems (ext2, ext3, ext4; ReiserFS, and Linux Swap). [3] Acronis uses sector-by-sector copy when a non-supported filesystem is backed up. [11]
The backup archives can be encrypted to reduce the risk of unauthorized access using either: none, 128, 192, or 256-bit AES encryption. [12] On modern systems, higher bit encryption algorithms do not noticeably impact backup or restoration performance rendering the selection of weaker options pointless. [12]
Managing backup archives created using the Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office software can be challenging for expert users who want to use it in conjunction with other software to manage their backups. [8] The software does not recognize when backups have been deleted using external software.
The compatibility of backup archives is not guaranteed between products that are not within the same version. [13]
Prior to Acronis True Image 2020, the file format used for storing backup image or file data was the True Image Backup file format (TIB). [12] True Image 2020 added an additional format: TIBX that provides additional functionality. [6]
The TIB (.tib) file format is used for storing the backup image data for all True Image versions especially prior to True Image 2020. [6]
The TIB file can be forensically identified by looking for a file signature of CE 24 B9 A2 20 00 00 00 or B4 6E 68 44. [14]
The TIBX file format, added in Acronis True Image 2020, addresses limitations with the TIB format such as replacing the MD5 hashed password with another mechanism to mitigate brute force attacks. [12]
The product supports cloning the contents of a SATA or NVMe storage media to another. The product will adjust the size of the partition(s) to ensure that they fit on the destination storage device.
Some hard disk manufacturers (including Western Digital [15] , Crucial and Seagate [16] ) provide customized variants of Acronis True Image with their drives that allows the user to clone their existing disk to another disk but with the caveat that the disks typically have to be of the same manufacturer.
In 2016, active ransomware countermeasures, blockchain-based notary services, and electronic signing (premium version only) were added to the product.
In 2020, security features (i.e., integrated advanced anti-malware features including real-time protection, vulnerability assessment, anti-virus scans, web filtering, and videotelephony app protection) were integrated into the product.
Prior to Acronis True Image 9, their business-focused product Acronis Backup or Acronis Cyber Protect shared the same name as their home product (i.e., True Image) with the minor exception that the business versions were called Acronis True Image Server. Later server backup software was renamed Acronis Backup.
In 2021 Acronis renamed the home product to Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office. It was renamed back to True Image in 2024. [6] [7]
Antivirus software, also known as anti-malware, is a computer program used to prevent, detect, and remove malware.
In information technology, a backup, or data backup is a copy of computer data taken and stored elsewhere so that it may be used to restore the original after a data loss event. The verb form, referring to the process of doing so, is "back up", whereas the noun and adjective form is "backup". Backups can be used to recover data after its loss from data deletion or corruption, or to recover data from an earlier time. Backups provide a simple form of disaster recovery; however not all backup systems are able to reconstitute a computer system or other complex configuration such as a computer cluster, active directory server, or database server.
Disk cloning is the process of duplicating all data on a digital storage drive, such as a hard disk or solid state drive, using hardware or software techniques. Unlike file copying, disk cloning also duplicates the filesystems, partitions, drive meta data and slack space on the drive. Common reasons for cloning a drive include; data backup and recovery; duplicating a computer's configuration for mass deployment and for preserving data for digital forensics purposes. Drive cloning can be used in conjunction with drive imaging where the cloned data is saved to one or more files on another drive rather than copied directly to another drive.
GHOST, now called Symantec™ GHOST Solution Suite (GSS) for enterprise, is a disk cloning and backup tool originally developed by Murray Haszard in 1995 for Binary Research. The technology was bought in 1998 by Symantec.
Internet security is a branch of computer security. It encompasses the Internet, browser security, web site security, and network security as it applies to other applications or operating systems as a whole. Its objective is to establish rules and measures to use against attacks over the Internet. The Internet is an inherently insecure channel for information exchange, with high risk of intrusion or fraud, such as phishing, online viruses, trojans, ransomware and worms.
Data security means protecting digital data, such as those in a database, from destructive forces and from the unwanted actions of unauthorized users, such as a cyberattack or a data breach.
Acronis International GmbH, simply referred to as Acronis, is a Swiss cybersecurity and data protection technology company with its corporate headquarters in Schaffhausen, Switzerland and global headquarters in Singapore. Acronis develops on-premises and cloud software which integrate cybersecurity, backup, disaster recovery, and endpoint management. Acronis has 15 offices worldwide. Its R&D centers, Acronis Labs, are based in Bulgaria, the United States, Italy, Serbia and Singapore. Acronis has 55 cloud data centers around the world, including the United States, France, Singapore, Japan, and Germany.
A remote, online, or managed backup service, sometimes marketed as cloud backup or backup-as-a-service, is a service that provides users with a system for the backup, storage, and recovery of computer files. Online backup providers are companies that provide this type of service to end users. Such backup services are considered a form of cloud computing.
Disk encryption software is a computer security software that protects the confidentiality of data stored on computer media by using disk encryption.
Veritas Backup Exec is a data protection software product designed for customers with mixed physical and virtual environments, and who are moving to public cloud services. Supported platforms include VMware and Hyper-V virtualization, Windows and Linux operating systems, Amazon S3, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Storage, among others. All management and configuration operations are performed with a single user interface. Backup Exec also provides integrated deduplication, replication, and disaster recovery capabilities and helps to manage multiple backup servers or multi-drive tape loaders.
Partimage is a disk cloning utility for Linux/UNIX environments. Partimage can save partitions in many formats to a disk image. Utilities such as Partimage are useful in a number of situations which are commonly encountered by network administrators as well as advanced computer users who maintain their own systems. The last stable release was in 2010; since then, one of Partimage's authors has worked on FSArchiver, which has broader functionality than Partimage.
Acronis Secure Zone is a hard disk partition type created and used by Acronis True Image as a backup storage target.
Hardware-based full disk encryption (FDE) is available from many hard disk drive (HDD/SSD) vendors, including: Hitachi, Integral Memory, iStorage Limited, Micron, Seagate Technology, Samsung, Toshiba, Viasat UK, Western Digital. The symmetric encryption key is maintained independently from the computer's CPU, thus allowing the complete data store to be encrypted and removing computer memory as a potential attack vector.
Disk cloning software facilitates a disk cloning operation by using software techniques to copy data from a source to a destination drive or to a disk image.
Clonezilla is an open-source suite of disk cloning, disk imaging and system deployment utilities. Clonezilla Server Edition uses multicast technologies to deploy a single image file to a group of computers on a local area network. Clonezilla was designed by Steven Shiau and developed by the NCHC Free Software Labs in Taiwan.
A computer virus is a type of malware that, when executed, replicates itself by modifying other computer programs and inserting its own code into those programs. If this replication succeeds, the affected areas are then said to be "infected" with a computer virus, a metaphor derived from biological viruses.
This is a comparison of online backup services.
Secure USB flash drives protect the data stored on them from access by unauthorized users. USB flash drive products have been on the market since 2000, and their use is increasing exponentially. As businesses have increased demand for these drives, manufacturers are producing faster devices with greater data storage capacities.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to computer security:
Macrium Reflect is a backup utility for Microsoft Windows developed by Paramount Software UK Ltd in 2006. It creates disk images and file backup archives using Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service to ensure 'point in time' data accuracy. Macrium Reflect can back up whole partitions or individual files and folders into a single compressed, mountable archive file, which can be used to restore exact images of the partitions on the same hard disk for disaster recovery, or a new hard disk for data migration.