In this day and age, maintaining privacy throughout our electronic communications is absolutely necessary. One method that can help individuals and organizations do just that is through encryption.
So, what exactly is encryption and how does it work?
Encryption takes your plain-text data and encodes it into a “scrambled message.” – More specifically, data is encoded via mathematical algorithms thereby making it unreadable. And while security risks can also be reduced on hardware through the use of firewalls, antiviruses and anti-spyware, encryption can commonly be considered the last line of defense. If intruders try to knock down your security measures to capture your data, their efforts will be unsuccessful as long as your data is encrypted.
For example: the internet, email and instant messaging are all essential tools to storing and transmitting data but they post a high security risk if not properly protected. Any person such as an online hacker can intercept and potentially view the data transmitted without a secure encrypted connection, such a Virtual Private Network (VPN). This same threat also applies to physical devices such as laptops, external hard drives and flash drives if misplaced or stolen. If not encrypted, all the data stored on these devices is fair game to any person that finds them. Just imagine, a lawyer working on a high profile criminal case loosing key evidence on his or her laptop which is then published online by an unauthorized party. The stakes are high!
Encryption should be a best practice for any security-conscious organization. The increase in cyber threats and data theft presents strong cases for building an infrastructure that delivers strong computing performance without sacrificing data security. Although encryption is not a 100% guarantee, it is one essential tool that can go along with a full arsenal of security services for creating a multi-layered defense. It is a proven approach to ensuring data is protected, even if accessed by unauthorized individuals.
We take data security seriously at Connectria. That’s why encryption is included with every PCI and HIPAA Compliant Hosting environment we build for our customers. In addition, all of our managed hosting services include a 100% Secure Guarantee. See Connectria’s full list of security features.