All About Data Encryption
You may have been urged to find encryption services to help protect your organization’s data—but if you are a leader who is unfamiliar with information technology best practices or the technical side of managing data, the phrase “data encryption” might feel like techno jargon or simply like a vague concept without a concrete solution.
But the fact is, data encryption is critical to assuring your leadership team, your customers, your investors, and other valued stakeholders that you prioritize security and that your organization has taken steps aligned with industry best practices to prevent a data breach, leak, or error situation.
In this article, we’ll explain some key concepts related to data encryption services—including what they are, how they work, and what benefits they offer organizations—so that you can make an informed decision about whether or not to invest in them.
What is data encryption?
Data encryption helps ensure that your information is protected and secured if it falls into the wrong hands—whether intentionally or unintentionally. By encoding your data through encryption, you make it unreadable to any unauthorized users who receive it.
Data encryption is the process of transforming readable data into an unreadable format. This is done using a key, a string of characters that serves as an algorithm for the transformation. The key is required to decrypt the data and make it readable again.
Only authorized users can decrypt the data by using a password or encryption key, which gives them access to the data that has been stored on your hard drive, remote storage, or other information storage platform. This gives you and your leadership team the control to decide when data can be retrieved, where it can be retrieved, and who can retrieve it.
Instead of relying on a simple password, which can be guessed or hacked, or on physical locks and protection, data encryption scrambles your organization’s information, making it strictly inaccessible without the right verification key. Data encryption is the gold standard for protecting your most valuable and most sensitive data.
How Does Data Encryption Work?
Data encryption works by transforming readable data into an unreadable format. This is done using a key, a string of characters that serves as an algorithm for the transformation. The key is required to decrypt the data and make it readable again.
There are two main types of data encryption: symmetric and asymmetric.
Symmetric encryption, also known as private-key cryptography, uses the same key to encrypt and decrypt data. This means that the sender and receiver of the encrypted data must both access the same key to read it.
Asymmetric encryption, also known as public-key cryptography, uses two different keys—a public key, known to everyone, and a private key, known only to the intended recipient of the data. The sender uses the public key to encrypt the data, and the receiver uses the private key to decrypt it.
Both symmetric and asymmetric encryption is incredibly secure—but asymmetric encryption is generally considered more secure because it eliminates the need to share keys between parties.
What Are the Benefits of Data Encryption?
Data encryption offers a number of benefits for organizations, including:
Security: Data encryption helps prevent unauthorized access to your data by making it unreadable without the right key. This helps protect your data in the event that it falls into the wrong hands—whether through a data breach, cyberattack, or physical theft.
Compliance: In many industries, data encryption is required by law—such as in the healthcare industry with HIPAA compliance. By encrypting your data, you can help ensure that you are meeting all relevant compliance requirements.
Privacy: Data encryption helps protect the privacy of your data by making it unreadable without the right key. This means that only authorized users will be able to access your data, and no one else will be able to view it.
What Are the Disadvantages of Data Encryption?
Data encryption is an incredibly effective security measure—but it does have a few potential disadvantages, including:
Complexity: Data encryption can be complex to set up and manage. This is particularly true of asymmetric encryption, which uses two different keys.
Performance: Data encryption can impact the performance of your systems, as it takes time to encrypt and decrypt data. This can be a particular issue for large organizations with a lot of data to encrypt.
Cost: Data encryption can be expensive, particularly if you use asymmetric encryption, which requires special hardware and software.
How Can I Implement Data Encryption?
If you want to implement data encryption, there are a few things you need to do:
Determine what type of data encryption you need: Do you need symmetric or asymmetric encryption? If you’re unsure, talk to a security expert to help determine the best option for your needs.
Generate a key: You will need to generate a key for encrypting and decrypting your data. This key should be long, complex, and unique.
Install encryption software: Once you have generated a key, you will need to install encryption software on your devices and systems. This software will use the key to encrypt and decrypt your data.
Store your keys securely: It’s important to store your keys in a secure location, such as a password-protected file or an encrypted drive. If you lose your keys, you will not be able to access your encrypted data.
Data encryption is an essential security measure for any organization—but it’s important to ensure that you understand how it works and how to properly implement it. By following the steps above.
Why is data encryption important?
Gone are the days when you could store your valuable information under lock and key. In an era of big data, mass storage, and an increasingly remote workforce, data encryption is essential to ensure that only those who are supposed to have access to your information can read, edit, or transfer it.
And particularly in cases where your full staff or team does not have extensive information technology training (which is the case for many organizations), it can be difficult or even impossible to rely on each person taking the initiative and responsibility to properly secure all drives and devices. Plus, no matter how well trained or well-intentioned, human error is a fact of life and even a small slip-up can quickly put your data—and your organization—at risk.
Data encryption ensures that no matter how or where you have information collected and stored, it is protected from loss, damage, or misuse.
What is the technology behind data encryption?
DataLocker uses military-grade 256-bit encryption standards, which means that there are 1.1579 × 1077 possible keys to decrypt the stored information. How secure is that? The odds of guessing that key is like getting your March Madness bracket completely perfect . . . four times in a row. That is why DataLocker’s encryption technology is used by government and military agencies, legal institutions, the healthcare industry, financial institutions, and Fortune 500 companies.
We use those security standards to build innovative products that serve our clients’ hardware, software, and management needs—allowing them to store, share, and secure all their most important information. DataLocker owns more than a dozen patents for the technology we use. And because technology is changing and improving almost constantly, DataLocker stays on the cutting edge of industry best practices and advances in encryption to bring our customers the best solutions of the day.
How can data encryption be used?
DataLocker offers a wide portfolio of innovative products to leverage our data encryption technology. Combining state-of-the-art security with ease of use for our clients and their teams, our encrypted hard drives and encrypted virtual drives provide the storage space you need. And when you need to be able to safely and securely transfer data, our encrypted USB and flash drives provide a secure solution for removable media storage. We also want to make it possible to easily and securely manage your encrypted drives from anywhere in the world. You can do just that with our central management solution and easy-to-use interface.
These products can help you and your organization secure customer data, patient histories, business plans, financial transactions, employee information, sensitive communication, and more. Data encryption stores your data securely until the right parties are ready to access it at the right time.
How can DataLocker help?
The level of security that DataLocker provides for your data does not reflect the level of expertise you need to use it. Our motto is Simply Secure because we believe in bringing encryption solutions that can help protect your organization’s data against both targeted attacks and the inherent risks of human error. There is no need to rely on intensive training and complicated processes and procedures when you can rely on DataLocker’s data encryption instead.
We are TAA Compliant
DataLocker is committed to providing products that meet the highest standards for security and privacy. That is why we are proud to be TAA Compliant. TAA (Trade Agreements Act) compliance requires that all products that DataLocker exports from the United States comply with specified trade agreements. These agreements help to ensure that our products meet the requirements for security and privacy that our customers need and deserve.
We are EAL5+ Compliant
The EAL5+ is the highest level of independent security certification that a commercial encryption product can achieve. DataLocker’s products have been evaluated by an accredited, independent laboratory and found to meet or exceed stringent standards for cryptographic modules. This means that our products provide the levels of security and privacy required by government and military organizations, financial institutions, and other companies that handle sensitive information.
We are FIPS 140-2 Level 3 Certified
FIPS 140-2 is a U.S. government standard for cryptographic modules that DataLocker’s products have been certified to meet. FIPS 140-2 Level 3 is the highest level of certification that can be achieved, and it requires that our products provide strict security controls and procedures for physical and logical access to the data stored on our encrypted drives.
We are CSPN Certified
The CSPN (Certification de Sécurité des Produits Numériques) is a French government certification that DataLocker’s products have been evaluated and found to meet stringent standards for security. This certification is required by many organizations in France and other French-speaking countries that need to ensure the highest levels of security for their data.
We are AES 256-bit XTS Encrypted
DataLocker’s products use the AES 256-bit XTS encryption algorithm to protect your data. This is the same level of encryption that is used by the U.S. government and military organizations to protect their most sensitive information. AES 256-bit XTS provides strong protection against both brute force attacks and sophisticated cyber threats.
DataLocker is proud to offer products that meet or exceed the standards for security and privacy set by governments and industry organizations worldwide. By choosing DataLocker, you can be confident that your data is protected by the best encryption technology available.
At DataLocker, data encryption is not just what we focus on but what we excel in. And we have made it our mission to provide data encryption solutions that are easy to use and cost-effective (without forgoing military-grade security) to enterprises worldwide.
We are the data encryption industry leader, offering best-in-class data security solutions for large and small organizations dedicated to protecting their data from breaches, leaks, and mistakes.
Do not leave your organization open to exposure or a public relations nightmare. Make data encryption services a priority. Are you ready to learn how DataLocker can support your organization through simply secure data encryption? Contact sales@datalocker.com to request a sample, or click here for an evaluation!