In today’s digital world, data security is more important than ever. Protecting sensitive information from cyber threats and unauthorized access has become crucial with so much of our personal and business lives online.
That said, encryption provides a robust method of safeguarding data at rest and in transit from these risks. Organizations can greatly strengthen their overall security posture and privacy controls by strategically deploying encryption services across communications channels, devices, cloud storage, databases, and network connections.
This article outlines five effective ways organizations can leverage encryption to protect their data.
Without encryption, any data sent between parties is susceptible to interception by hackers. End-to-end encryption ensures that only the intended recipient can decrypt and view messages by keeping them scrambled during transmission. Furthermore, leading communications platforms use end-to-end encryption by default to secure user conversations.
For companies, using end-to-end encryption services helps protect any important info shared between workers, customers, and partners over work communication tools. Scrambling messages requires strong codes and algorithms so only the sender and receiver can see them. This securely protects any private discussions or files shared through chat, email, or calls between people.
With employees increasingly accessing corporate systems and data remotely on their devices, full-disk encryption has become an essential data security measure. Full-disk encryption scrambles the whole storage of a device. That includes the operating system part. It prevents anyone from reading data if the device is lost or stolen.
Furthermore, full-disk encryption is usually used for laptops because they are at the highest risk of being taken. But it also makes things like desktops, servers, and USB drives safer. To do full-disk encryption, encryption software needs to be installed. It scrambles the drive when starting up. Users must prove who they are to see the scrambled information.
Companies also need central tools to set encryption rules for all work devices. Clear rules are important for devices employees use for personal and work (called BYODs). These policies help protect corporate data no matter what device accesses it. Encrypting everything keeps data private if devices are misplaced.
The shift to cloud-based file sharing and collaboration has accelerated rapidly but also introduced new risks. Thus, data stored in the cloud needs to be properly secured. Encrypted cloud storage scrambles files and folders stored in the cloud using secret codes only the owner knows.
In addition, even if a hacker takes over an account, the scrambled data would look like nonsense without the right secret codes. This protects sensitive data that could otherwise be seen in cloud breaches or wrong access.
Major cloud providers offer different encryption types. Companies can pick what works best regarding their security needs.
Overall, encryption defends important cloud information from unauthorized access and viewing.
Databases are a common repository for masses of sensitive records and transactional data, making them an attractive target.
Therefore, database encryption helps secure this stored data through cryptographic scrambling using encryption keys. It protects against unwanted database access and offline attacks through stolen or compromised backups.
Database encryption can be implemented transparently at the application level without requiring changes to queries or applications.
Additionally, database encryption can happen behind the scenes without changing how questions or apps work. Major database brands like Oracle, Microsoft SQL, PostgreSQL and MongoDB all let you encrypt certain columns, whole tables or the full database differently.
Furthermore, some have built-in options like Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) that handle scrambling and unscrambling without apps or people helping. Properly handling the secret codes is important when scrambling large, organized information.
Besides, storing codes separate from databases using secure hardware is best. Complete database encryption systems make sure businesses securely scramble all sensitive stored details.
As remote and mobile workforces connect to enterprise networks over public networks like the Internet, VPNs provide a tried-and-true solution to do so privately and securely. VPNs protect encrypted tunnels between devices and internal networks. This hides traffic and protects against people spying on network activity.
Furthermore, VPNs verify who users are and scramble all communications back to internal tools. This stops data from being seen when connecting from untrusted places. It’s also good to turn on multifactor authentication (MFA) as another step to access VPNs. With firewalls and intrusion blocking, VPN setups let clients and users securely access business networks from wherever they link up using encrypted tunnels.
Moreover, VPNs securely connect remote workers to important company systems privately, even when using less trusted public networks away from the office or on the go. The scrambling tunnels and verification steps safeguard sensitive data as people remotely get work done.
Through the strategic use of encryption services, organizations gain powerful capabilities to secure data at rest, in use, and in transit against modern cyber threats. The approaches outlined – encrypted communications, device encryption, encrypted cloud storage, database encryption, and VPN encryption – synergistically strengthen an overall security posture.
By establishing cohesive policies and key management procedures governing these encryption solutions, businesses can reliably protect sensitive information assets, whether processed locally or distributed across networks, infrastructure, and devices.
