Introduction
Data is one of the most important assets for any company and all individuals today. In the face of escalating and evolving cyber-attacks, experts have been trying to create a strategy that can protect data at all times while it is in transit, at rest, or in use. Data loss can cause financial and reputational loss. Hence it is imperative that companies and individuals take efforts on protecting data across all states and every time from the prying eyes of cybercriminals. Once the sensitive data is accessed by the hackers the implications range from ransom to identity theft and fraud.
Entities like Government, hospitals, educational institutions, banks, and financial services store a lot of PII (personal identifiable information). Loss or misuse of this information in an event of a cyberattack can cause catastrophic effect. All institutions and organizations store data and if it is not in use, it is referred to as data at rest while data that is being worked on/updated is called as data in use and data that moves across via networks, emails, and devices is known as data in motion/transit. Data breach can occur in any of the above stages and at times it is difficult to retrieve or trace the breach location. At times, even after attacks take place individuals are unaware of the hack. Let’s examine how data across these varying stages can be protected from potential
Data at Rest
Documents, data are stored on files, systems, networks, drives, removable media like USBs, hard disks, and pen drive. Unauthorized access of the data can lead to losses compromising the organization and the individual’s reputation. Hence, the firms need to adapt a strategy, as described below, to protect data at rest against cyberattacks.
Locating and Identifying data
When the data is at rest, it is stored in a specific location for later use. Companies need a particular process to categorize which information is sensitive and needs to be stored. Also, there should be a limit to the location where it is stored. For example, the company cannot store the customers’ sensitive data on multiple server locations, as it would not be easy to protect and handle. It is why storing the data on specific, and few sites would be better.
Data Classification
Data classification is one of the most important processes for securing the data with various levels of encryptions. The company should regularly analyze data to understand its sensitivity level. It can become high risk to low risk and vice versa. Accordingly, companies should change the policies and encryption keys to safeguard them. Also, understanding the level of criticality for the data also helps the company to save it in a specific location and take adequate measures for its protection.
Encryption
Instead of protecting the data at rest with multiple passwords or accesses, the firms can bid farewell to this complex mechanism and embrace data encryption software. The data protection software from Cypherix- Cryptainer Pro is easy to use with a simple drag and drop function that allows users to secure their data across all versions of Windows. Cryptainer Pro creates a virtual disk also called as a vault for the data encrypted. The users need a passcode to access the vault. In the absence of the passcode, the stored data is unreadable. The data protection software offers ‘on the fly’ encryption which means it can protect the entire hard disk. Thus, even if the laptop is stolen no user can mount the hard disk and access the data without the key. Additionally, you can encrypt unlimited size of data in varying formats like word, excel, photos, audio, videos in minutes on vaults and store on your system or cloud servers. This is referred to as File-level encryption. Organizations and firms can create multiple vaults and work with many vaults simultaneously without compromising on the productivity of the system. With Cypherix’s Cryptainer Pro you can even encrypt your data on removable drives like USBs, disks, etc. The challenge to protect data at rest lies in the hands of the owner. The rising use of mobiles in our work lives has enabled data being stored on our smartphones or tablets. Users can encrypt this data by transferring to the laptop and creating virtual disk of them.
Data in transit and use
Today more than ever before, we are inter-connected across the globe across systems. This digital collaboration has led to data transmission from one location to another, one system to another using emails and other cloud products. Despite the security of password, data in transit and in use is the easiest victim of cyberattack. Hence, in the absence of a robust data protection workflow, significant losses can occur to the company and the individual.
Control access
The best way to secure the data in use is by restricting access at a user-level. When the access is limited, only a handful of users will be able to use it, and it will be easy to track which user is accessing it or modifying it. Access can also be given to specific data fields, limiting the usage. Also, providing metadata instead of raw data will ensure that the actual data remains safe from changes and unauthorized access.
Data Encryption
Implementing a data encryption software goes a long way in securing the data from the misuse if it lands in the wrong hands. Emails can be protected using Cypherix’s data encryption software. In order to access the information, the recipient needs to have the key to unlock the email or the DeCypherIT software which is a freeware utility tool that reads the data. While in transit the data is secured and if any data breach was to occur, the information is unreadable to the user.
In case of data in use, owners can adopt the file-level encryption model offered by Cryptainer Pro. In an instant users can drag and the drop the file in the vault and the file becomes secured from unauthorized access. The data encryption software supports encryption of an infinite amount of data. Thus, instead of securing every file with individual passwords or locking the system, you can simply drop them in vaults.
Conclusion
Data, one of the most important resources for any company, needs updated techniques and ways to protect it from any breach and hacking attempt. Although there are many different tools for it, the companies need to be extra vigilant about the data use, where it is stored and accessed. Data encryption has been one of the best ways to secure data in all three states.
Cypherix’s data encryption software ensures that the data remains unreadable unless accessed by the encryption key. Cryptainer Pro can be used by anyone who has the basic knowledge of computer making it accessible to individuals and businesses of all sizes. The encryption software would help secure the data when it is stored on the servers or when it is being used by employees or transmitted from one system to another. Encryption is one technique that every company needs to implement to ensure the protection of data at all times.
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