Encryption is a relatively quick step to take in order to secure your data and information on your laptop from the threat of being stolen. It can aid us all in the fight against cyber-crime and cyber-theft. The biggest companies and the least tech-savvy person can use it to their advantage if they want to add an additional layer of protection to their sensitive data.
The most popular apps on your smart phone will have encryption built in to their communications. You can also encrypt individual files and even your entire hard disk in your computer which holds all your information/data. In the US, there is a constant battle between a person’s right to encrypt/protect their own data or as the law might perceive it, hide their data. The ongoing fallout for the NSA from the Snowden/WikiLeaks scandal is certainly helping/encouraging people to have an increased interest in encrypting/protecting their data, and it’s no harm if people do have a more wary mind of the cyber threats out there. The Electronic Frontiers Foundation (EFF) and Mozilla, the company who make the FireFox web browser, are working on increasing the level of encryption for people when they visit all websites. You can read more here .
But you don’t have to be a big company to have confidential information on your laptop, tablet or smartphone. Most people have some confidential information on their devices and regrettably most take few precautions to protect this data. Yet if your laptop falls into someone else’s hands, it is almost as easy for the technically savvy to copy your files and emails as it is to copy something to a USB key – even if your machine is password protected.
That is where encryption comes in. At Eonvia, we can encrypt the hard disk in your laptop so that it cannot be read without passwords or other security measures of your choice. We use the same industry leading encryption software in use in many large Corporations today. We can even set up you laptop so that it can be erased remotely. Windows 8 Professional now comes with bitlocker encryption built in. That means that full disk encryption can be done for as little as €80+VAT. For Windows 7 machines, we recommend Symantec PGP encryption which is also very affordable.
It’s just as important to secure your tablet or smartphone and the good news is that it can also be cheaper too – some smartphones and tablets have encryption built in and remote erase capability ready to be turned on. So if you’re worried that you have important or sensitive information that you wouldn’t like to fall into the wrong hands, give us a call. We’d be glad to help.
