The most effective types of encryption for your business

The most effective types of encryption for your business

Information protection is one of the most important issues in companies. Failure to protect data can compromise a company’s entire business, so it is imperative that you take the necessary steps to ensure that no confidential information is lost. Encryption is a set of techniques used to protect information so that only authorized persons can access it. The word cryptography derives from the Greek, in which crypto means hidden and graph means writing. In a very simple way, we can say that cryptography means hidden writing. The encryption techniques transform the data into codes, preventing them from being read by unauthorised persons. Only those who have the “key” of the file can perform the reading of the information. In today’s article, we’ll cover the most effective types of encryption for your business!

SSL (Simple Encryption)

This is a recommended security measure for all websites, especially for those who request the sending of private information from customers, such as personal data or bank details. This method validates the URL of the site domain and protects the information. To find out if a site is secured by SSL, simply check that your URL contains HTTPS before the address.

VPN

A virtual private network (VPN) is a type of private connection that uses a public network to access your company data. It contains a connection encryption that prevents data interception and IP tracing. This is the safest way to access corporate data through public networks such as hotels and airports.

Email Encryption

This type of encryption allows you to encrypt e-mail signatures, guaranteeing the verification of the origin of e-mails sent and received. This type of protection is suitable for companies that need to ensure secrecy in legal matters, where emails cannot be used as evidence.

Symmetric key

The key is used by both the sender and the receiver, that is, the same key is used to encode and decode the data. It is not recommended to use this method to store very important and sensitive information.

Asymmetric key

This method uses two keys: a private and a public key. An encryption key is created and sent to anyone who needs to submit information – this is the public key. Another key must still be created for the decryption – this is the private key. The private key is secret and should be sent only to anyone who is authorised to decrypt the data.

Extra tip: data masking

Data masking has the main purpose of protecting confidential data against unauthorised access. In practice, data masking tools create a version similar to the original data in terms of structure but without revealing its true information. In fact, its original format remains unchanged but the data presented is fictitious. Masked data can be used in test and auditing environments without compromising the result of the analysis, but always ensuring the confidentiality of sensitive information. A manual process to protect data consumes a lot of time and human resources so the best option is to resort to tools that do the process automatically, such as Datapeers.