It happens to everyone. The technology that your business has used for years becomes obsolete or not suited to your needs anymore, so you upgrade. The old tech you used to have is thrown away, discarded, and forgotten about. In most cases, nothing untoward happens. But in some, the tech that was thrown away comes back to haunt them.
How?
All computers store data. Even when you think you’ve wiped them clean by formatting them, the data remains. Formatting only makes it harder to recover the files by erasing the address tables, but most computer specialists will still be able to access all or most of the information stored on the disk. Your company’s sensitive data is now open to other prying eyes.
What can you do to protect your data assets? For safeguarding critical information, companies typically use data encryption.
What is Data Encryption and Why Should You Use it?
Data encryption can be described as a sort of lock that prevents thieves from stealing information. It’s an extra layer of protection that is put in place to safeguard your crucial infrastructures, and only the people you choose can have access to the key.
While data encryption will not protect your computer entirely, encrypting your files will significantly reduce the risk of you falling victim to data theft. You don’t even have to be in the process of upgrading technology to start using encryption. Protecting your files now, which might be accessed by hackers through malicious links in emails or an unsecured network connection, is the best course to take.
Here are some more reasons to use encryption technology:
- 1. Data encryption can be used across a variety of devices and can be used whether you utilize physical servers or the cloud to store all your company’s valuable/important information.
- 2. Depending on your industry, encryption may be mandatory rather than optional. In the financial services sector, for example, organizations are subject to civil and criminal penalties if they do not reasonably protect the security of their clients’ information.
- 3. Encryption technology supports data integrity by diminishing the chances of an unauthorized person getting access to your critical data.
- 4. Consumer trust increases when businesses put their clients’ privacy at the forefront. Businesses can build up a strong degree of trust with their consumers by committing to a high standard of securing data.
Is Data Encryption Enough?
In most cases, the best encryption technology is enough to safeguard your data. However, should you decide to upgrade, you need to consider another option for the old technology that you will be disposing of. This is where data destruction comes in.
Data destruction is erasing files completely so that the contents can no longer be recovered. It can involve overwriting the current data with other data until the current one can no longer be accessed or physically destroying the electronic medium (shredding). Varay, for example, will send unencrypted drives to be shredded to make sure sensitive data is completely destroyed and will send you a certificate of verification once it’s done.
Data destruction is the last step you take for any electronic medium that you won’t be using anymore.
Keep your data from falling into the wrong hands
Secure your business against data thieves by taking the first step. Contact Varay for a complete security plan to protect your organization’s confidential information.
