Benefits of Encryption Technology for Data Protection
Encryption is another way of protecting your data or information and has been widely used throughout the whole history of the IT industry. We may be working with advanced technology to encrypt our data, but the core idea behind the need for Data Protection is the common sense to secure one’s data or information within an unsecured environment. Since the Internet first entered the homes of people, there has been an emerging interest in encryption and cryptography, especially to preserve the privacy of consumers and providers. Security and protection are always relevant features to data, the Internet just helped extended the matter of privacy into digital grounds. Nonetheless, protection is needed there too.
The internet is a huge global village where everyone can easily connect and exchange invisible currencies. With equal access to information, less is attributed to privacy, and more is prone to public access. Matters that can be attributed to privacy are reduced in number, but the cost to protect them can be observed going up. With hackers lurking around the corner. Without the air-tight protection for all your digital communication, financial information, and private documents, everything remains exposed to cyber theft. Digital information has that offbeat effect on people: because you don’t see or feel it, it matters less overall. Let this side effect not deter you from the facts: digital data matters a lot. That is why there are always hackers plotting to steal it.
Encryption is a way for you to protect data from peeping toms and eavesdroppers.
Cryptography is the scrambling of data to make it look like incoherent ramblings unless you have the key to decipher it.
With data encryption, it is the conversion of data and information into a code that is important. Sometimes a continuous flow of a different kind of information hides in a layer of another set of data and conceals your data within it. This method is done to deter any unauthorized access to private documents and files. The conversion of data into a code also promotes access to that same data, limited only to those who have the cipher or the key that can decode the encryption set. A person must follow the series of organized steps to uncover the file or document they are interested in seeing.
Any security protocol must limit the number of people with access to a specific system or network. Should a data breach happen, your encrypted data is rendered useless unless they have a key to decode it. So, if you experience a data breach, then the attackers will still not be able to see the data because of the data encryption.
Here are five advantages of using encryption for your data protection:
1. Encryption is Readily Available
Most of the devices we use, as well as the different operating systems they run, have built-in encryption technology. It may not be readily available or even start automatically, but encryption is accessible from within our devices. Microsoft has BitLocker that allows users to encrypt entire volumes of their hard disk. Similarly, even our mobile phones—iPhone or Android—have their encryption features already built-in.
If you look at Play Store or Appstore, you will find lots of applications that cater to protecting your data through encryption.
In your local network at home or work, you need to provide a username and a password before logging onto the device. The information stored in your local system is encrypted. The encrypted data includes the stored username and passwords of the employees that work in that company.
In the early days of computer technology, networking was not a default feature. But once networking rolled in, businesses realized that there must be access levels put into play – only individual employees with specific access can reach certain data. As mentioned before, this data will be encrypted.
2. Encryption Fulfils Regulation Requirements
GDPR and other regulations provide guidelines regarding the need to encrypt data but do not enforce it as a requirement. As a business operating in the EU, they recommend that security measures must be in place for their protection, as well as their clients’.
Other regulations, such as healthcare-related establishments, set requirements for the use of confidential files. These rules may include devices that contain sensitive data on clients, patients, and suppliers. Confidential data, such as the ones mentioned, are required by regulation to be encrypted. So this means that data on hard drives, thumb drives, memory cards, or any storage device with confidential files on it must be protected. If such data gets stolen, the company or organization responsible may be subject to fines.
3. Encryption Protects Data Flow of Remote Workers
In this unprecedented time of pandemic and uncertainty, most people are bound to work from home. By doing so, they keep themselves and their family safe, away from the unnecessary— and sometimes dangerous—interactions with other people.
Working remotely used to be a luxury or incentive for those who have made a significant impact on the company’s growth. It also used to be the way to outsource work to find a cheaper alternative for labor. Amidst the pandemic and the emergence of this new lifestyle, working from home has become a necessity. For this scenario, data encryption protects the flow of data from remote workers to the company’s servers.
Security experts believe that the chances of a data breach are higher when employees work remotely. It is because the device or unit that the remote worker uses for work will also store confidential data and information.
The company’s network administrator and the IT team would usually secure the device and monitor the data flow. But they needed a way to obtain data from the remote workers end back to their servers.Encryption of confidential data from remote workers can be achieved through a Virtual Private Network. VPN encloses the data in encryption and prevents cybercriminals from intercepting it.
4. Encryption Guard the Integrity of Our Data
Encryption does not give a full-proof guarantee regarding data that is not moving, stagnant, or at rest. However, it can verify the integrity of the backups you have made. With the use of digital signatures, the company, as well as the data security team, can maintain data integrity. Encryption prevents hackers from intercepting communication and manipulation of such data because the recipient could quickly check for any unauthorized access and prevent it.
5. Encryption Promotes Trust to Consumers
With high-profile data breach reports streaming in seemingly regular intervals, it is fair to say that something must be done to hinder the erosion of trust from consumers towards providers. There is a growing public agreement that data encryption is an absolute necessity. The rise in popularity of VPN services and advertising and informing your consumer base, even followers from social media and visitors to your website, would notice that your business is conforming to industry standards and requirements. Such services establish a level of trust in customers. They will know that their provider takes the proper measure to ensure the protection of their confidential financial information.
Conclusion: Encryption is Crucial to Stay Safe on the Internet
Given the advantages of data encryption, we see that it should be implemented in an unsecured environment such as the internet. Similar to the urge of people in the past to protect their internal communication from prying eyes, encryption today is essential for protection. It is easy to see that malicious intent does not stop with the initial attempt – hackers use brute force and are always on the look for vulnerabilities or flaws in network security. Therefore, we must use encryption to protect our critical information from countless attacks or abuse.
