The Importance of Encryption During the Coronavirus Pandemic

As more people work from home, cybersecurity is growing in importance.

13:50 29 May 2020

Encryption can be a difficult concept to get your head around, but, when understood, it’s an effective protective technique.

What is encryption?

Encryption, generally speaking, is the practice of hiding information by encoding it into something that an unauthorised party would be unable to understand or decipher. It has been used since the days of Ancient Egypt and Rome, often for military purposes, whereby symbols or letters were shifted and encoded; only those with the cipher or key could understand what it meant.

In the modern era, encryption is most commonly associated with cybersecurity. A far more complex evolution of its primitive form, encryption now protects data and electronic communications such as in emails or via mobile telephones.

How does it work?

There are two types of encryption when it comes to sending data from one party to another. They require sending and receiving parties to hold a key – imagine the data being locked up as it is sent and unlocked once it arrives – so that anybody without the key, intercepting the message, has no access to its information.

The first is symmetric encryption, also known as private-key, where both the sending and receiving parties hold the same key – in other words, the encryption and the decryption key are the same. In public-key or asymmetric encryption, the encryption key and the decryption key are different.

In terms of the algorithms for encryption themselves, there are a number – Triple DES (Data Encryption Standard), RSA and AES (Advanced Encryption Standard). Seeking out professional advice on something that can be quite complicated is always a good idea.

A company such as Proofpoint can help with email protection and safeguarding data, as well as training to make sure you and your staff or colleagues have a better understanding of how it works.

How is it used in business?

Email encryption is important to businesses who are communicating sensitive information, private data or anything that they don’t want to be intercepted. Individual files can also be encrypted, as well as data stored on hardware such as a disc.

Encrypting your business’s data should be as commonplace as keeping your most important physical documents in safe or in secure storage. Hacking is a big deal, and just as you protect your office with locks and CCTV cameras, you should be protecting your online presence and communications, too.

Why is it so important now?

Apart from the fact that under some regulatory requirements, encryption is demanded – for example, health care providers or institutions of higher learning – cyber security is also more important now than ever.

This is especially true of email encryption. With the coronavirus pandemic forcing many to work at home or in separate offices, more communications and data will be sent over the internet. Confidential conversations that could once be taking place in a locked office are now being carried out online.

Some people may be starting new jobs under lockdown conditions, beginning their career with a company from home. This means contracts, personal information and bank details are passed over from potentially unprotected internet connections.

Businesses, now more than ever, must take cybersecurity with the utmost seriousness. Encrypting data and communications is one way to do this.