As a crucial element of your cybersecurity strategy Data encryption is a way to protect the sensitive information stored in your company’s computer systems or transmitted across public networks. As cyberattacks become more sophisticated and computer systems improve the methods for data encryption must also change. To ensure that your data is protected it’s essential to understand how this security method is used and when it’s appropriate.
Encryption is the process of encoded data in a manner that it becomes scrambled or inaccessible to anyone else without the encryption key. This encrypted data is then transmitted or stored to stop any unauthorized access to original information.
If used properly When used correctly, data encryption makes it impossible for hackers to gain access to information, even if they digitally or physically steal it. It’s often the base of a solid security framework and is often required by compliance standards to protect certain types of data, such as healthcare data with HIPAA regulations, payment card data with PCI DSS regulations and personal data required for GDPR compliance.
With remote work and mobile devices becoming more commonplace it’s vital for companies to implement robust data encryption strategies to ensure their sensitive data remains safe. This includes encryption at rest, which helps protect the data on hard drives cloud storage, USB devices and best data rooms smartphones from physical theft or malicious attacks that could occur when a device is connected into a network that is accessible to the public. Data encryption in transit is also used to protect information that is being actively transmitted from one system or device to another. This includes email, instant messaging, and website traffic. This protects against malicious activities such as man-in-the-middle attacks.