What would you do if you got a Slack from your CEO saying their computer was stolen? How would you protect the information on that device? Even companies that have every cybersecurity solution in place to protect information from technology-based threats won’t be safe when it comes to physical security.
That’s why it’s essential to secure your systems with tools that keep your data safe in the event of physical threats.
With encryption, you can secure your devices by protecting your hard drive from anyone trying to access it without authority.
How Do Encrypted Hard Drives Work?
You can encrypt a hard drive by using software that converts data into unrecognizable text sequences. When a user starts up the system, they’ll be prompted for an encryption key, which can come in many forms:
A password or phrase
One-time password generating devices such as RSA tokens
USB drives containing the encryption key
Biometric devices such as fingerprint readers
If a user provides the correct encryption key, the software decrypts the file they’re trying to access while leaving all other information encrypted. This process won’t affect a user’s workflow at all and does not have any effect on other programs or applications on the device.
Benefits of Encrypting Hard Drives
There are many significant benefits to encrypting your hard drive, such as:
Preventing data breaches. Encryption makes it incredibly difficult for unauthorized persons to physically access any information on your device, preventing them from retrieving private information.
Protecting important information. Data encryption protects files containing crucial information that cannot fall into hackers’ hands, such as social security numbers, bank information, and passwords.
Enhancing data security. You can easily implement data encryption into your organization’s hard drives, keeping all confidential business information safe. This advanced form of data security uses strong algorithms to encrypt data and help you gain peace of mind.
Compliance and Regulatory benefits. Many compliance and regulatory frameworks require data to be processed on encrypted devices (aka “at-rest”).
How to Encrypt a Hard Drive
How you encrypt your hard drive depends on the operating system you use. Windows has BitLocker encryption built in and macOS has Filevault integrated. It’s simple and free to enable drive encryption on these systems, but there are several precautions you should take to make the process successful:
Backup your files before enabling encryption.
Create a long, complex password that cannot be easily guessed.
Keep a copy of your password somewhere safe.
Securely save backups of your encryption keys.
Protect Your Data With Help From Kinetix
Data encryption is essential to safeguard data from security threats, both in the virtual and physical world. At Kinetix, we make our cybersecurity tools as affordable and easy to use as possible so you can keep your business’s most vital information safe from cyberattacks.
Contact us to get started with our services.
