Encryption is a word that often doesn’t give a welcome feeling to many of the users in the computer world.
They always see encryption as related to something with the military or war or government.
Users always are weary of this term and often think of World War II or top security operations etc. when they hear about encryption.
In fact encryption is an invaluable tool for protection secrets that are important to businesses like patented secrets, business critical data, employee information, business data, etc.
But it seems that businesses are not able to fully realize the potential of encryption because they feel that it is far too complex to be used in day to day routine operations and fear that if something goes a miss they might corrupt the data.
But the truth is encryption of vital and important data is no harder or complex than running simple virus scanners or using back-up software to backup data.
The Basics of Encryption
There are two basic methods through which data can be encrypted. One is through the use of symmetric encryption.
The symmetric encryption technology used a single key to encrypt as well as decrypt the data. In this particular form of encryption the key that is use dot encrypt the data is used to decrypt the data and the users or systems on the receiving as well as the sender side, if used in communication, should be in possession of the same key.
Symmetric encryption is faster than asymmetric encryption. Data that is encrypted through the use of symmetric algorithms is easier to break and so many a times it is used to encrypt not so important data.
The other methodology that is used for encryption is to use asymmetric encryption algorithms. In this particular encryption methodology, there are two sets of keys that are used.
Encryption of the data is done with one key and decryption of the data is done with another. During a communication of data, while using asymmetric encryption, each user must have a pair of keys that they will use.
Each key pair will have one key that is called the private key and the other which is called the public key. The whole infrastructure that uses this technology is called the Public Key Infrastructure.
How to apply Encryption?
There are several options through which encryption can be applied. There is software both free and commercial those are available to encrypt/decrypt data. Mostly all the software and hardware in day to day use do not include encryption technology to keep their cost down and performance up, it is up to the business owners to decide on the technology and the vendor they may be going with to encrypt their data.
By using software means, the data can be passed on to the encryption software along with the key and the output will the encrypted data that can be stored or communicated as needed.
Considering the examples of operation systems, windows vista and 7 come with bit locker encryption that can be used to encrypt the entire hard drive for protection.
On the other hand, there are software also available such as TrueCrytp, T3, Basic, Security, DESlock+, Name FileLock, etc.
What call can be Encrypted
Now the real question comes of what to do with the encryption technology that has been acquired by the business or the individual. Encryption can be applied to:
- Encrypt Emails. Encryption of emails is a safe option to use to prevent from eaves dropping and sniffing of emails while in transmission.
- Encrypt hard drives. This can be used to limit the possibility of loss of data through data theft because of loss or theft of the laptops or computers.
- Encrypt individual files. This option is normally to be used when encryption of the whole hard drive is an expensive option and only a few important data files need to be encrypted.
- Encrypt communications. Now a days there are options available for encryption the voice and data lines completely between two communicating parties. Voice lines like VoIP calls be encrypted to prevent from eaves dropping.
- Encrypt instant messaging. Instant messaging has become one of the main communication mediums of present times. Many business around the world use instant messaging for communications across remote branch offices. Encryption of these instant messages would help in securing these messages.
- Encrypting removable drives. The use of removable drives has increased since the last half a decade. Without removable drives the mobile sharing of data seems unrealistic. Sales person, travelling business persons, etc. use removal drives to carry their data around. Hence protection of these drives is of paramount importance as they may carry business