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> Another thing is to PULL backups, not push them out.

That's an absolute must. A push backup may not be a backup at all when you need it, or it may be compromised. It also requires the system you push into to be accessible for inbound connections, which in itself may be problematic.

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Really once the secure channel between two processes running on each host is setup, there is no difference between the two methods. A pull backup can be tricked just as easily by presenting a false filesystem or backdooring the 'pull process' running on the compromised machine.

You want append only backups with secure timestamps and do forensics to find the last good snapshot. It is easier to set that up with pull backups, but not so hard with the right tools for push backups.

Another option is to use a cloud storage service that supports fine grained access control (e.g. write-only vs read-only) and retention polices.

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