Agnivo Roy

Computer data or digital information is one of the most sensitive and important assets of people, businesses and organizations today. Personal information, transactions, business secrets, plans and such other critical data are being increasingly stored on computer systems these days; with a lot of people and businesses going digital to minimize paperwork, increase efficiency, introduce automation and increase overall productivity. As the dependency on computers have increased, so has the number of portable devices like laptops and PDAs. With these, the chances of data theft, system compromise and intrusion activities have increased greatly.

System admins and security analysts claim that most of the data theft, intrusion, hacking, sabotage, etc. arise due to stolen equipment especially laptops of employees. Sensitive, highly guarded data and business secrets can land into evil hands or competitors simply through the login credentials on the stolen equipment. It is estimated that 1 out of 10 laptops are stolen on average; mostly from the mobile executives and employees. No estimate how dangerous threat this can be to personal or organizational data security.

To combat this problem, there are many good, effective and efficient ways. Simple user-login or fingerprint based authentication won’t do, cause the data from the hard-disk of a stolen system can be retrieved by connecting it to another PC! So, there a very practical way out - using hard disk data encryption softwares and enterprise data encryption solutions. The data is completely encrypted (it is almost impossible to retrieve in original format unless you know the passkey) on the hard disk and decrypted on the fly while logged in and programs/files are accessed. Thus, connecting this hard disk to another PC won’t reveal any usable data; protecting it completely from evil hands and prying eyes.

Completed hard disk encryption solutions are becoming mainstream nowadays and becoming increasingly affordable. Managed Encryption Service is good choice for organizations looking to protect data and ensure security of sensitive information across all computers, laptops within the organization and it’s employees. This gives the security analysts and systems a fresh breath; they can now concentrate more on other important jobs than constantly worrying for data security. Also the risk of stealing data from discarded, phased out or failed system and hard disks is almost nil due to encrypted data.