Network security is of paramount importance to any business, large or small. As such, you need data encryption protocols in place to secure online communications between two individuals or between servers and clients. It works by shielding your data-at-rest and data-in-transit from outside attackers who could be stealthily monitoring your communications without your knowledge.

In 2023, the cost of cybercrime hit $8 trillion, which translates to more than $250,000 per second, and the total annual cost is expected to rise to $10.5 trillion by 2025. Being aware of cybersecurity and taking steps to implement it in your organization is imperative in shielding your business from attack.

Data Encryption: Defined

In a nutshell, encryption takes in plaintext data that’s unobscured and converts it into ciphertext. This is a random assortment of letters, numbers, and symbols that prevents unwanted viewers from seeing your sensitive data. Ciphertext can revert back to its sensitive data form, provided a key is used to encrypt the data, or a pattern can be detected within the ciphertext that decrypts it.

When someone accesses encrypted data without permission, it will appear scrambled or unreadable. Put another way, data encryption involves converting data from a readable format into a scrambled piece of information so that confidential data can’t be intercepted in transit. Encryption may apply to anything from documents and files to messages or any other form of communication that occurs over a network.

Think of it this way: encryption forms the basic building blocks of data security, an important way to protect information passing from endpoints to servers.

The online communication process relies heavily on the ability to decrypt data and is critical in ensuring sensitive data stays hidden from attackers. This is where encryption protocols come in.

An encryption protocol’s purpose is to fulfill a specific function, whether that involves communications with TLS/SSL, remote connections, or computers with SSH. The two basic types of protocols are asymmetric and symmetric encryption.

Encryption software is what is needed to convert plain readable files and text into those that can’t be deciphered using known human languages. Such software systems employ data encryption algorithms to protect sensitive data so that it cannot be stolen, changed or compromised.

Why You Need Data Encryption

There are many reasons why your organization needs data encryption protocols:

  • Security: Encryption works to protect information against data breaches occurring from data that is in rest or transit. Let’s say your corporate-owned device was misplaced or stolen by an employee or thief. You shouldn’t have to worry about the data that’s stored on it if your hard drive was properly encrypted. In this case, it will most likely be secure. Encryption also protects data against malicious activities such as man-in-the-middle attacks, allowing parties to safely communicate without the threat of data leaks.
  • Authentication: Public key encryption certifies that a particular website’s origin server does own the private key and has a legitimate SSL certificate.
  • Privacy: Encryption guarantees that messages can’t be read and data can’t be accessed by anyone except the recipient or data owner. Thus, cybercriminals, hackers, spammers, Internet service providers, and government institutions are prevented from accessing personal data.
  • Regulatory Compliance: Many government departments and industries (i.e., HIPAA and GDPR) require organizations that deal with users’ personal information keep that sensitive data encrypted thanks to regulatory and compliance standards set forth by HIPAA, GDPR, and the like.

Network Security: How We Protect Your Business

Here at Cardinal, we employ a multi-layered approach to designing your network security solutions, in order to protect your business from any threats that could cripple your operations. From your network’s entry level to the Internet (firewall) to the endpoints (workstations and servers), we put the proper safeguards in place at every level, including file and folder security, multi-factor authentication, encryption, real-time antivirus, web filters, and anti-malware detection and scanning.

Skimping on your data protection just isn’t wise in this day and age. With so many attacks happening on a daily basis, it’s important to protect your company and all the data in it.

In 2023 alone, three out of four companies in the United States were considered at risk of cyberattacks, which have been increasing in recent years to amount to 480,000 in 2022. Don’t be a statistic. Call us today.

Request a Quote From Cardinal Technology Solutions

To learn more about our multi-layered approach to network security that protects your company from threats, get a free quote today from Cardinal Technology Solutions.