There’s been a lot of talk in the news lately about encryption – particularly as it relates to communications between devices, and the question of how much access law enforcement or government should have to encrypted data VS the level of protection individuals and businesses should be entitled to. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of confusion on the issue, from both the media outlets reporting on the debate as well as some of the participants in the debate.
So what is encryption? Basically, encryption allows two or more people to send messages or files to one another without worrying about the messages/files being viewed by anyone “listening” on the internet. The messages are encoded into an unreadable format, only able to be decoded by someone with the appropriate encryption key. Encryption technologies have become so strong that even the device manufacturers providing said encryption cannot decrypt messages without obtaining the encryption keys themselves. Unfortunately, the less secure data transmissions are, the easier it is for hackers and cybercriminals to steal data. Yet, if encryption is very strong, it becomes difficult for law enforcement to intercept criminal communications.
As you can see the issue at hand can be legitimately debated from both sides of the fence, which is the reason why it is such a hot topic. If you are concerned about your own company’s security, please contact us today to learn more about how to best protect your network and data.
