Static Security

Data encryption systems have their roots way back in the 1940s when military communications during the World War 2 was encrypted using a special set of ciphers and sent to the receiving party. The most notable data encryption system in place then was the enigma code which was developed by the German military to communicate orders directly to the field. Albeit it was broken by British mathematicians and Polish spies it was the first notable effort where data was being actively encrypted before transmission.

Today data encryption systems have come a long way, combining the processing power of hardware and the intelligence of software to provide really secure data security solutions for enterprises all over the world. However, like other things which have a significant history, these systems have their own set of myths. So here are 3 of the most silliest myths about data encryption.

1. If I have a really complex username and password in my laptop, no one can steal my data. For all those who have been relying on their complex passwords to protect sensitive information in their laptops, in case it gets stolen or lost, here’s an eye opener. A person with little experience in computer hardware can easily open up the device, remove the disk drive and access its contents through another system. In fact if he knows someone who specializes in data recovery, he can have most of the information which you might have stored in the past and later deleted them. It is rather naive to think that an OS or BIOS password combinations are a good solution for enterprise data security. While recent operating systems from Microsoft do provide their own hard drive data encryption system namely the BitLocker, security researchers have broken through the BitLocker using a ‘cold boot attack’. Thus its better to be safe than sorry and invest on a professional data security systems for highly sensitive data.

2. Data encryption might slow down my system.In the late 1980s to early 2000s? yes, but nowadays the computing power of processors have increased phenomenally along with increased intelligent optimization of software which allows data encryption systems to run in the background in real-time while you might carry out your daily business. In fact even mobile devices like smartphones and tablets have enough processing power to have an encryption systems running and not even show a noticeable effect on the device’s performance.

3. Having SSL is enough to secure data everywhere.SSL(Secure Sockets Layer) is a security mechanism which is designed to provide communication security, or in simpler words, to protect data on the move. However, once the data is received and stored in a storage device which doesn’t have proper data encryption systems in place it becomes vulnerable to information theft. Thus whenever you store sensitive data in a disk or storage device, even if its only for a few minutes, you should have it secured with a professional encryption system.

So these were the three silliest myths about data encryption systems. Have any more myths about data security? Leave the thought in the comments section down below and have your myths noticed.