Which of the following is a key data integrity control for electronic maintenance databases?

• A. Regular backups and tested recovery procedures
• B. Disable backups
• C. Avoid audit trails
• D. Rely on local copies only

Answer: (A)

Regular backups paired with tested recovery procedures protect data integrity by ensuring you can restore a reliable copy after loss or corruption. Backups create redundant copies to recover from hardware failure, software errors, or cyber incidents that could compromise maintenance records. Recovery testing is essential because it proves you can actually restore data to a known good state and verify that the data remains accurate and complete.

This approach supports airworthiness decisions by keeping records trustworthy and traceable. Disabling backups removes a critical safeguard against data loss. Relying on audit trails but avoiding backups undermines accountability and the ability to verify data integrity over time. Relying only on local copies increases risk of loss or out-of-date information and does not protect against broader failures or disasters.