Throughout the history of the human race, we’ve always sought to send information without it being accessed by others. Today, the amount of data being transmitted all over the world due to computers is staggering, and while there are data breaches at times, new ways to protect your data are always being invented. Right now, one way is to encrypt your data.
Encryption means that the information you transmit is scrambled into nonsense so that people without the code cannot read it. Today we have software that unencrypts the data so it’s not as hard to do. The code that helps read it is called the key. Whoever has the key can read the data. If you want reasons to always encrypt your data, read on.
1. Helps You Avoid a Breach – You probably hear on the news all the time about information getting into the wrong hands due to a data breach. Most data breaches can be prevented with proper encryption.
2. Ensures Security on Your Devices – Today, most of us share information across multiple devices. If that information is encrypted before being transmitted, it will be a lot safer on every device that you use.
3. Keeps Data Safe during Transmission – When you transmit data such as passwords, credit card information and so forth, there must be data encryption to avoid criminals from getting their hands on that information. That’s why you should only transmit that information over a secure system that uses SSL.
4. Encryption Stops Data Manipulation – People often fear theft of information or loss of information, but the main issue is really manipulation of that data. You don’t want to leave any doors open for that to happen because it would cause a mess in your records.
5. Because of Regulatory Requirements – In many cases there are laws and regulations in place that require a certain amount of encryption to be used to protect consumers. If you accept credit cards, for example, you’ll have to be compliant with these laws.
6. Encryption Software Is Easily Available – There are many choices for encryption software to choose from. There are apps, plugins and enterprise level apps that help you keep your data safe. You can try Folder Lock, SSL Certificate, Email Encryption Add-on and other choices, all from your website hosting company. Plus you can get a variety of encryption plugins for your WordPress site too.
Links:
Folder Lock – https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/folder-lock/id372925917?mt=8
WordPress Plugins – https://wordpress.org/plugins/search.php?q=encryption
Using encryption is an important way to prevent hackers from stealing your information. Thankfully, for the most part this is done automatically today if you use secure systems to transmit data. Most of this is really a matter of choosing the software you want to use, installing it, and then using it and updating it regularly.