Ensuring the protection of your organization’s data can often make the difference between success and failure. Stephane Nappo once stated, ‘It takes 20 years to develop a reputation and only a few minutes of a cyber incident to damage it.’ Fortunately, the IT industry provides a variety of tools and procedures to protect against potential data breaches, including Data Loss Prevention solutions and Data Encryption techniques. Today, we’ll go further into the latter, hoping to better comprehend the ‘what’s, why’s, and how’s.’
Data encryption may be a difficult idea to grasp, yet it is a crucial component of protecting your organization’s sensitive data. At its essence, data encryption turns data into an unreadable format, allowing only those with a secret key to read it. Furthermore, encryption can be used to protect both data at rest (data kept on an internal or external storage device) and data in transit (data transported via a private network or the internet).
What is Data Encryption?
As we previously discussed, encryption works by converting sensitive data into cipher text. But the million-dollar question is, why should you care? Consider this scenario: your laptop is taken, and your files are not encrypted. In such a case, the thief has easy access to all of your information. The thief can easily boot your system from a USB stick and gain access to your disk, even if they do not know your password. As a result, it is recommended that you encrypt your sensitive files, if not your entire hard drive.
In addition to protecting your privacy from cybercriminals and other threat actors, encryption can help you meet legal requirements. Many businesses and countries have implemented regulations, such as GDPR and HIPAA, requiring organizations to encrypt and secure any personally identifiable information. Adhering to these rules becomes lot easier when you have a strong data encryption system in place.
Types of Data Encryption Techniques
There are different types of encryption techniques available, but most of them can be classified into two distinct categories: symmetric and asymmetric. Let’s explore each of them.
Symmetric encryption
Also known as private-key cryptography, this encryption method uses the same key for both encryption and decryption. The movie ‘The Imitation Game’ does a great job of describing how symmetric encryption works. Symmetric encryption is commonly employed in closed systems. When used in open systems with multiple users, this strategy requires that both the sender and recipient have access to the same key. As a result, there is a risk of third-party intrusion, which could jeopardize your organization’s data. On the positive side, symmetric encryption is faster than its counterpart.
Asymmetric encryption
This technology is sometimes called public-key cryptography. Unlike symmetric encryption, this approach employs two keys during the encryption process: a private key and a public key. Despite not being identical, these two keys will be mathematically linked. This method uses the public key for encryption and the private key for decryption. One important thing to remember is that the encryption key cannot be used to decrypt, and vice versa.
Hashing
Hashing is the process of generating a unique fixed-length signature, known as a ‘hash,’ for a given dataset. The hash typically appears as a string of characters. Hashing distinguishes itself from other encryption methods in two ways:
- Hashing is irreversible, meaning you cannot convert a hash back into its original data.
- Given the same input, hashing will consistently produce the same output.
Taking these characteristics into account, we can conclude that hashing is not precisely encryption; rather, it functions more like a fingerprint for the provided input. For this reason, hashing finds applications in areas such as password storage, database indexing, and data compression.
How can I Encrypt my Devices?
Choosing and using encryption technology for your firm is highly dependent on your individual use case and desired level of sophistication. If you work in a business that handles large volumes of sensitive data across several devices, you should use an encryption solution with strong security features. These features could include secure key sharing, key management, and audit recording.
Fortunately, there is a diverse selection of third-party products accessible to meet these needs. Notable possibilities include Advanced Encryption Package (which supports 17 encryption techniques), AxCrypt (which allows for file and key sharing), and VeraCrypt (which supports several encryption schemes), among others.
If you work for a small to medium-sized firm or are an individual representing a larger demographic, your encryption requirements may not necessitate the advanced sophistication of the technologies listed above. You may be looking for tools that are simple to use and inexpensive but can nevertheless encrypt local storage. Fortunately, most major operating systems include built-in utilities that meet these requirements.
Let’s have a brief look at some of them.
Windows
Windows offers you two options to encrypt your device: Device Encryption and BitLocker. The Device Encryption feature is available on every Windows edition as long as the device has a TPM (Trusted Platform Module). With this feature, you can encrypt your system and secondary drives completely. It doesn’t give you the flexibility to exclude a specific disk or partition. Still, it’s better than having no encryption at all.
Read Also: Top 5 Cybersecurity Mistakes Businesses Make
On the other hand, BitLocker is another full-disk encryption tool designed for Windows devices. It utilizes the AES algorithm with 128-bit or 256-bit keys for encryption. Unlike Device Encryption, BitLocker allows you to encrypt either a single drive or all drives based on your specific requirements. Additionally, BitLocker provides a suite of management tools to enhance data security. It’s important to note that BitLocker is available exclusively on Windows Pro, Enterprise, or Education editions.
macOS
FileVault 2 is a proprietary encryption tool available on all macOS devices. In the past, the legacy FileVault software, introduced alongside OS X 10.3 Panther, only supported the encryption of a user’s home directory. However, Apple later launched FileVault 2, which can encrypt the entire OS X startup volume and not just your home directory. Moreover, serving as a full-disk encryption tool, it utilizes the AES encryption algorithm with a 256-bit key.
FileVault is not activated by default when you purchase a new macOS device. You must manually enable it from System Preferences. You have the option to store the recovery key either on your iCloud account or locally on a secondary storage device. However, cybersecurity experts advise against storing it in iCloud, as it can potentially make your data susceptible to social engineering attacks.
iOS
iOS uses encryption by default under the name Data Protection. Your data is protected with the device passcode, meaning that Data Protection is only activated when you set up a passcode for your device. It also uses the device’s UID (Unique Identifier) number along with the passcode to encrypt the data. So, an attacker can only try to brute-force the password on the device itself. They can’t remove its storage and connect it to another device to access the data.
Apple has also announced Advanced Data Protection for iCloud, protecting data in transit. This feature uses end-to-end encryption to provide the users with a high level of cloud data security.
Android
Android provides users with two encryption options: full-disk encryption (FDE) and file-based encryption (FBE) on its devices. FBE is available in all Android versions released after Android 7.0. However, FDE is supported only in Android versions ranging from 5.0 to 9.0. It was discontinued in the newer versions as it restricts most of the device functionalities when users reboot their devices.
File-based encryption introduces two storage locations for the device applications— Device Encryption (DE) storage and Credential Encryption (CE) storage. While the former is available to apps right after Direct Boot, the latter is available only after the user has unlocked the device. This segregation also makes work profile containerization possible, as it allows the protection of more than one user at a time.
Data Encryption Best Practices
Data encryption is one of the most effective ways to protect your organization’s data. Still, like with most things, successful encryption requires both strategy and execution. In this section, we’ll look at some best practices for making your data encryption algorithms and approaches as efficient as possible.
1. Define security requirements
Scoping out the general security landscape of your organization is an important first step in any encryption strategy. Encryption systems vary in strength and processing capabilities, so it’s important to assess your current security needs before buying into a solution.
To evaluate your security posture, you can…
- Conduct a threat assessment to uncover any system vulnerabilities.
- Speak to teams and stakeholders to learn of any business decisions, existing situations and even compliance regulations that could affect your strategy.
- Review prescriptive materials including well-established cybersecurity frameworks.
2. Classify your data
Building on the first step, you’re ready to better understand the types of data you store and send. This includes anything from customer information to financial data and company account details and even your proprietary information that your business relies on. You can then classify each type of data by:
- How sensitive it is
- Whether and how it’s regulated
- How often it’s used and called upon
3. Choose the right encryption solution
Once you’ve identified your data priorities and security requirements, you can look for data encryption tools to fit your needs. You’ll likely need to install a range of encryption algorithms and techniques to protect different forms of data across your databases, files and applications. The best data encryption solutions are able to offer:
- Encryption at multiple levels (application, database and file) for data on-premises and in the cloud
- A centralized management dashboard for data encryption, encryption key policies and configurations
- An automated lifecycle process for encryption keys (both on-premises and cloud-based)
- Audit logging and shared group and role-based access controls (RBAC) to help address compliance
Use data encryption tools in addition to general security solutions like email security platforms, cloud security software, and payment gateways, as they can also encrypt data and provide added levels of security.
4. Consider any deployment obstacles
Adding to and overhauling existing security strategies is a significant change for any business. It’s therefore important to plan for any problems that could arise, such as the integration of data encryption solutions with application back-ends and legacy systems.
Ensure you have plenty of time to navigate these obstacles and consider partnering with a third-party IT provider to support your IT team with deployment.
5. Enable and collaborate for a culture of security
For your data encryption strategy to be truly successful, employees need to buy into a culture of security. Education and training on encryption key management and best practices are crucial for minimizing the human error factor of improper key storage, as we explored above, can put important data at risk.
6. Recognize the limits of data encryption
The goal of encryption is to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive information. But your organization still requires additional cybersecurity solutions to keep hackers at bay. These include firewalls, endpoint security measures and VPNs.
An encryption strategy should fit seamlessly into an already strong cybersecurity strategy.
Challenges to Data Encryption Methods
Despite their obvious strengths, there are some drawbacks to encryption methods. Fortunately, careful adoption of best practices, which we’ll cover below, help overcome and mitigate these concerns.
Key management
Key management is a major difficulty for data encryption solutions in an enterprise. Any keys needed for decryption must be stored somewhere. Unfortunately, this site is often not as secure as individuals believe. Hackers have a special talent for discovering the location of critical information, posing a significant danger to company and network security.
Key management adds another level of complexity to backup and restore. When calamity hits, the crucial retrieval and backup process might delay your company’s recovery efforts.
Brute force attacks
Vulnerability to brute force assaults is a less common but important vulnerability to encryption. A brute force assault is the official term for a hacker’s attempts to guess the decryption key. Modern computers can generate millions or billions of possible combinations, therefore the more complex the encryption key, the better.
Today’s encryption techniques, when combined with strong passwords, are typically immune to these assaults. However, as computing technology advances, data encryption approaches will continue to face an existential threat in the future.
Conclusion
As we conclude this guide to data encryption, it’s important to remember that encryption is only one element of the security puzzle. Your computer and data security require more than simply encryption. There are further components to cybersecurity, including network security, virus protection, identity and access management, and so on. Integrating all of these factors into your security infrastructure is critical for effectively combating digital threats.
