Your company’s most valuable asset is under threat from unscrupulous criminals. These outlaws want nothing more than to bring your firm to ruin by stealing your property. They will either sell it to the highest bidder, or they will use it themselves for nefarious purposes.

Guess what? You’re probably letting them. The most valuable asset your business has is its data. Many firms don’t adequately protect their vital information. Keep your data safe by using encryption.

Encryption: How It Works

The term “encryption” refers to the act of encoding information. This code is unbreakable, unless you’ve got a key. The encryption key reverses the process, and you’re left with data that anyone can see.

Thanks to advances in technology, encryption now takes place through an automated process. This procedure is seamless, so the user doesn’t realize it’s taking place. Encryption won’t affect your computer’s performance.

Data Encryption Methods

There are a variety of data encryption methods. The type of encryption you use will depend on the kind of information you need to secure.

Data can be broken down into two categories: data at rest and data in motion. Data at rest means that information resides within some kind of storage, such as a hard drive or a removable memory stick.

When you encrypt data at rest, you can choose to encrypt it:

• at the application level
• in the file or operating system
• in the device driver or network interface
• on the network
• on the storage controller, or
• on the storage device.

The second category is data in motion. This term refers to information which is traveling across a network.

There are a number of ways in which data in motion can be encrypted:

• secure socket/transport layer security
• WiFi protected access
• virtual private networks, and
• Internet Protocol Security (also known as IPsec).

Data Encryption: Securing Your Business

How can data encryption protect your company? Encoding your data is a foolproof way to keep unauthorized individuals from accessing sensitive information. Let’s say that a hacker manages to breach the network. If data is encrypted, the hacker won’t be able to do anything with it unless he or she has the encryption key (which is the tool used to lock and unlock the information).

The aforementioned scenario isn’t so hypothetical. Data breaches happen dozens of times per year, with devastating results for their corporate victims. Businesses suffer a loss of reputation and trust. Moreover, if they haven’t adequately protected sensitive information, firms can face massive fines.

WinMagic – Your Trusted Source for Data Encryption Solutions

Are you looking for ways to safeguard your company’s most valuable asset? Contact WinMagic today at 1-888-879-5879. WinMagic has been helping customers secure data through encryption since 1997.

Our products have won several awards, and we have five million clients in over 80 countries. Find out how WinMagic can work for you and your business by speaking with a customer service representative.