Cyber Security - Encryption Ensuring your Data, Company, Computers and your Users are Protected
You accidentally leave your laptop on the train, leave it unattended at a conference or perhaps your PC is left unattended in a shared office space when you leave to go home for the night… What’s the worst that can happen?
Just use your imagination for a few seconds and you can imagine what would happen if the wrong person got hold of your device, and with it your company data, accounts information, customer details, personal data – the list goes on…
Don’t worry, we have a solution…
What is Encryption?
A basic explanation is “all your data is LOCKED”. Not at a document or user account level, but at a data level – and the unique key to unlock it is extremely difficult to crack.
What this means, is that if somebody was to access your device – even if they removed the drive – they would not be able to access (or unencrypt) your data without the correct key… You can see why malware that ‘encrypts’ your data can be so catastrophic to companies!
We could spend hours on Encryption but to summarise, encryption encodes your data to secure it, making it so only those with the associated encryption key or cipher can access and read the data
Without getting too jargon-ey, there are two forms of encryption, symmetrical and asymmetrical, but several types of encryption, as well as different algorithms that aid the encryption process – All you need to know is that encrypting your data can ensure better privacy, security and protection against data theft
Do I really need my data encrypted?
This would definitely be decided case-by-case – if you have many mobile users that have access to or store critical and private information, then yes, encrypting those devices would be recommended. Or perhaps the industry you work in, or customer contract you have requires your data to be encrypted? Equally, if you only have in-house computers in a secure environment, you may feel encryption is unnecessary, as there are downsides to encryption…
How can the IT Heroes help?
Our Managed IT Suites include centrally managed and direct encryption support, ensuring the correct devices are encrypted and their respective ‘keys’ stored securely – you wouldn’t want to lose them…!
For more information on Encryption contact one of our IT Heroes and we’ll advise you on best practices.