Cybersecurity has, over the past decade or so, become an issue of paramount concern. For businesses and individuals alike, the consequences of a data leak can be absolutely catastrophic. Data encryption in cybersecurity is an important issue – let’s take a quick look at just why it’s so important, exploring some of its key functions in turn.
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Ensuring Complete Confidentiality
In recent years, there has been a seemingly endless run of scandals surrounding phone hacking. Whether by government agencies or freelance journalists trying to get a good story, it’s become evident that not all information that’s shared online is confidential.
Data encryption, when done well, can ensure that no one can intercept messages or data that you send and then read it. While a lot of communication channels do this automatically, it’s important to consult with a specialist such as Mitigate Cyber if you’re unsure as to the efficacy of your current system.
Data Encryption in Cybersecurity – Compliance
In a wide range of different industries, there are now strict regulations that govern how you manage data and communication with clients and employees. Covered under structures such as the GDPR, businesses in particular have to make sure that they’re encrypting and storing data in a certain manner, to remain in compliance.
If you have a data leak, and it’s shown that this leak was a result of a compliance issue, then you could end up facing serious legal repercussions.
Business Continuity
One of the many issues you need to keep in mind when thinking about cybersecurity is business continuity. It’s important to identify certain key elements of your business's digital infrastructure that could threaten your ability to operate as normal.
Based on what you find, you need to take specific measures to protect these areas. This will likely include an important element of data encryption, depending on what kind of business you’re running.
Your Brand Image
The kinds of incidents that tend to result from data leaks can be incredibly damaging to your business’s image. There’s a strong chance that you will never recover – people take a long time to develop trust, but it takes just a single event to destroy all that work.
People want to know that what they share with your business, whether it’s financial information or other personal details, will be kept safe. That ability to maintain privacy will be one of the foundations of your brand in almost all cases, and it’s absolutely something that you need to protect.
Cybersecurity isn’t something that you want to overlook, and data encryption will be a key component to whatever approach you take. It’s a core regulatory requirement for most businesses, and if something were to occur, you could end up facing serious legal sanctions.
Taking care of your clients and employees, and protecting their data is an important way of developing trust and a strong brand. It can take a long time to develop this trust, but it only takes a single incident for it to vanish.
