What Is Encryption And Why Do You Need It?

By: Chris McQuade, Operations Manager

We have been focusing on encryption a lot recently…

You may have a basic knowledge of what it is and why it’s important. On the other hand, you may be puzzled at the thought of encryption and how it can help protect your businesses sensitive information. Either way this blog will let you know why encryption is vital for data protection.

Encryption is quite a commonly used word amongst IT folk, but you’ve probably never really given it a great amount of thought.

Let’s start with the basics, encryption is old. Very old. It has been used to protect important information for many years and was basically created to keep secret things secret. It was used mainly by governments and well-to-do individuals but now it’s part of our everyday lives and we it’s become something that we don’t even think twice about.

With so much of our personal information being put online, it’s important that you encrypt data and protect it from criminals who are after your details. Encryption can be as simple as using password protection on your PC, but it can also get extremely complex. The encryption of sensitive information like bank details and other data involves very complicated extents and many different types of authentication.

This may all sound quite tedious but put simply, encryption involves taking information and coding it with a secret cipher (a top-secret message of some sort). The cipher can be used to show the information, but to anyone the coded message would be complete gibberish. This is just one example but there’s so many different ways of encrypting information.

Encryption is never 100% secure.

I know I’m backtracking a little bit here by saying that encryption isn’t a failsafe method of data protection, but hear me out…

There are many ways to crack ciphers, although the better the cipher the harder it is.

Fortunately, most private companies that hold sensitive information (banks, insurance companies, social media sites, etc.) have their own systems in place to protect your information. For information stored on your PC though, a simple password on your user account isn’t going to cut it.

Saying this, there are options and other ways you can secure your sensitive data. You can encrypt individual files that have sensitive information in, or you can encrypt your entire hard drive. If you only encrypt individual files, it’s possible that those with access to your computer could still break into them and take your personal information.

Encrypting the entire drive means that even booting up the PC can be difficult if you don’t have the password, so this is clearly the more secure option. The flip side is that if there is any corruption on your hard drive, it may be harder to retrieve the data.

So, how can you encrypt your files?

Securing your information as an individual can be straightforward. There are many applications on the market which will help make it quick and easy for you to encrypt your files or your entire drive.

If you run a business though, doing this separately on each PC in your workplace can be incredibly time-consuming and outright boring! But, this is something that’s extremley necessary now because of the number of devices we have that store sensitive information. Not only are there PCs that require securing, but also phones and tablets.

Luckily, we offer our very own service- Managed Encryption

Luckily, we offer our very own service- Managed Encryption, so the worry is not on you to manage all your encrypted devices. We can deploy our Managed Encryption software remotely on all the devices on your company’s network and then manage it for you. This goes for phones and tablets, PCs, Macs, and portable drives. We basically take away the hassle of encrypting each of your individual devices and also take on the job of managing these devices.

Clearly this has a whole host of benefits for you and your business. First, it means you can rest assured that your information, and your customers information is safe. We are experts in the field of cyber-security, so you can be confident that your information will be well protected. Secondly, using our Managed Encryption service will save you a lot of time and stress. By having us manage your encryption means you’ll be able to focus on the things that really matter to your business.

Using our Managed Encryption service also provides many other benefits, such as the ability to outsource and remotely wipe, shut down and lock devices.

This means you’re covered if a device is stolen or an employee leaves your company but still has a device with them. With all the benefits of using our Managed Encryption service and the increasing risk involved in protecting private information, now might be the best time for your company to consider investing in our Managed Encryption service.