Hackers are on the lookout for unprotected data. They use it to steal identities, resell on the dark web for a hefty profit, or to blackmail their victims. If you’re a business entity, getting their hands on your data is even more of a lucrative venture. Hackers may not earn anything from it themselves. But you still face the punitive fees from the regulators, loss of reputation in your customers’ eyes, and even possible lawsuits. That could bring your business to its knees.
Thus, using encryption to protect your data is not up for debate. In any case, there are many benefits to using it.
Safer Remote Working
Remote working goes hand in hand with convenience, and no one can argue that. But the latest research suggests that remote work increases the chances of sustaining a data breach. In fact, as much as 86% C-suite executives and 60% of small business owners share the sentiment. Meanwhile, the younger generations tend to prefer remote working over traditional arrangements. It’s becoming ever more challenging to please all employees. Not without sacrificing too much in the cybersecurity department at least. That’s why modern encryption solutions like NordLocker comes in handy. They make it easy to carry on with your work while making sure your files don’t fall into the wrong hands.
Increased Chances of Avoiding Regulatory Fines
Data protection is not something to mess around with. The consequences of a data breach, and the fines associated with it can reach astronomical heights. So it’s essential to respect the regulations. It’s for the good of everyone involved, your company as well as the customers you serve. The healthcare sector, in particular, treats patient data with indisputable care. Otherwise, regulatory fines for non-compliance may follow. Remember when the University of Texas’s MD Anderson Cancer Center was slapped with a $4.3 million fine for violating the HIPAA act? It’s no joke.
Better Data Integrity
Ensuring better data integrity is another benefit of using data encryption software. Yet, many often overlooks it. After all, data is essential for tracking trends, knowing your customers, and making good decisions. And making sound and reliable business decisions is way easier if you can trust the data that’s on your plate.
To better themselves in this regard, businesses often resort to techniques like data cleansing. But data encryption plays a vital role in making sure that only authorized parties can access your company’s information. No one from outside can mess with it. Plus, insider threats can do less damage. And as it goes without saying, a hacker will have a hard time messing with your data if it’s in encrypted form too.
Increased Trust
Your customers choose you over your competitors because they’re able to trust you. They need to know that you will handle the payment details they provide with security and care. Lose their trust, and they’ll take their hard-earned money elsewhere. That’s how it works. Take Sony, for example. They put 70M of their customers to risk by storing the passwords of their users in plain-text form. Although they apologized for it afterward, they never gained the trust of many customers back. Of course, having a strong password falls on your customer. But hashing and protecting it with data encryption tools is your responsibility.
Streamlined Data Transfer
It’s only a matter of time before your business will need to move your data from point A to point B. That’s precisely the time that poses a myriad of cybersecurity risks. But when data encryption is in place, you can transfer files worry-free. Having encryption is vital if you use cloud solutions to transfer your data. If you choose to sync your files in encrypted form, they’ll stay safe even if hackers compromised the cloud platform.
Equal Security Across All Devices
Every device and operating system comes with its solutions for protecting your files. But the great thing about using file encryption software is that the effects are universal. Even if a hacker gets around the defenses of your OS, they would still need to decrypt the files to make sense of the contents within. Thus, file encryption technology offers an equal level of protection across your devices and operating systems.
htgConclusion
File encryption is a necessary measure to put in place if you want to move your business to the next level and protect your company’s best interests. But even personal files can use encryption because there’s no such thing as too much security or privacy.
Have you encrypted your files yet, or are you a sitting duck for hackers to exploit?
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