When it comes to data encryption, I imagine myself as the spy James Bond protecting national security secrets. Or I'm Tom
Cruise viewing top-secret "Mission Impossible" briefings that will self-destruct in five seconds. Cloak and dagger dreams
aside, using data encryption technologies once reserved for elite government agencies is now not only common but also good
business practice.
Your data is valuable
Years ago, to keep company data safe, we installed locks on the door to the computer room. A good dead bolt lock has helped
many systems administrators sleep well at night. Then came computer networks and the Internet. Overnight, physical security
was not enough. Anyone with access to the network could hack our computer systems and gain access to sensitive company data.
Out of necessity, the computer security industry was born and gave us everything from firewalls, to anti-virus software, to
intrusion detection systems. These are all good solutions, but often times they are not enough. I know what you're thinking, "My business doesn't have any national security secrets to protect." While that may be true,
don't underestimate the value your company data holds or the damage that could be done through its misuse. The top three pieces
of data worth protecting are 1) company financial records, 2) employee payroll and benefit records, and 3) customer sales
information.
Keeping data secure
So what can I do to protect my business? It starts with basic computer security involving firewalls, strong passwords, anti-virus
software, etc. But on top of that, consider using data encryption to protect the data itself. Data encryption is not new.
Caesar had his cipher for passing information to his generals. Da Vinci wrote in a mirror image script to protect his manuscripts
from being read. Today, we too have solutions to protect data from use when it has fallen into the wrong hands.
Two vendors to look at are PGP ( http://www.pgp.com/)
. PGP, which stands for Pretty Good Privacy and the free open source solution from TrueCrypt ( http://www.truecrypt.org/)
. While not as feature rich as the PGP, you can't beat the price.
Be advised, there is a downside to data encryption, starting with complexity. These solutions are getting easier to use, but
it's one more thing to install and configure. The second downside is key and password management. In this digital age, if
you lose the encryption key to your data, that data is gone. Keeping a copy of your encryption key or password is something
you simply can't take lightly. But I think you'll agree; in spite of the downside, it's better to have your data protected.
— The author is a freelance technologist focusing in business automation. Contact him at 801/592-2810 or visit his blog at
http://www.tylerwhitaker.com/.
