In today’s digital age, businesses need to understand the importance of cryptography in the security of their business data. Cryptography is one of the most effective tools in any IT team’s arsenal, but it needs a fair amount of research to apply well. In this article, we’ll explore what cryptography is, how it works, and how it can help protect your business and customers online.
What Is Cryptography?
Cryptography is the practice of using mathematical algorithms to encrypt and decrypt information. This means that the information is transformed into a code that can only be read by someone with the key to unlock it. The purpose of cryptography is to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity of information as it’s transmitted and stored between different devices and networks.
This means that anyone intercepting the transmission will only see a string of numbers and letters that have no meaning on their own. It’d be like someone who has no idea how to read Japanese text trying to decipher a 1000-page book written in kanji, only if they don’t do it fast enough, the book suddenly glues itself shut.
Why Is It Important To Know What Cryptography Is?
Business owners aren’t expected to be cryptography experts. In fact, most IT security teams don’t even have cryptography experts. It’s a slow-moving field that takes years upon years of academic research before bearing fruit. However, the key thing to remember is that the results of their research created the encryption models and algorithms used by cybersecurity companies today.
Knowing that information is crucial because it also helps you avoid being scammed. Cryptographers are not people you hire. They are the people creating the systems that your cybersecurity team uses to protect your business. So, if a person comes up to you claiming to use a “new encryption system”, they are definitely scamming you. Encryption is practically a bonus to any decent cybersecurity system.
Cryptography is an incredibly broad topic, with many different studies under its long history. Still, as previously mentioned, expertise isn’t a requirement to reap the benefits of cryptography. Just knowing that cryptography is a way to enhance your business’ online security puts you ahead of many other businesses that don’t pay the field much heed.
How Does It Protect Your Business?
Whether it’s for crypto exchange or payroll, encrypting sensitive data brings with it several benefits to keep your business safe and secure. Cryptography is one of the unsung heroes of modern digital security, and it’s far more common than people think in the most popular software they use.
Data Protection
One of the most important things that cryptography does is protect customer data. When a business stores customer information, such as names, addresses, and credit card numbers, it’s crucial that this information be kept confidential. Cryptography ensures that the information is stored in an encrypted format that can only be decrypted by someone with the correct key.
For obvious reasons, customer data is one of the most valuable assets a company can have, but with poor security, those assets become massive liabilities. Many hackers are tempted to steal customer data because it often involves payment details and addresses that they can sell to advertisers, or simply steal money from.
Authentication
Encryption also helps ensure that the information being transmitted is authentic. This is because the recipient can use the key to verify that the information came from the sender and hasn’t been tampered with in transit. Encryption is a common security tool for this exact reason, as being able to discern whether or not a user should have access to specific data is crucial to data security.
Two-factor authentication is currently one of the most effective tools for securing software. Many regulations and industry standards, such as PCI DSS and HIPAA, require organizations to implement 2FA as part of their security measures. By using 2FA, businesses can demonstrate that they are taking the necessary steps to protect sensitive information and comply with these regulations.
Online Security
With the world increasingly becoming more digital, online transactions are becoming the norm. While there are tons of benefits to online transactions, they also happen to be one of the most vulnerable forms of transaction in the modern day. Whether it’s legal transcriptions or just buying pizza on an app, encryption plays a huge role in keeping that data secure.
Encryption helps ensure privacy during transmission by encrypting the information as it is being sent over the internet. This helps protect against eavesdropping and man-in-the-middle attacks, where an attacker intercepts and potentially modify the transmission.
Conclusion
Cryptography is a critical component of securing your online business. By transforming sensitive information into a coded form, encryption helps protect data from unauthorized access and ensures privacy during transmission.
This helps maintain the confidentiality of sensitive information and ensures that businesses meet regulatory requirements for privacy and security. Cryptography is an evergreen security measure in today’s digital landscape, and it’s up to businesses to keep themselves (and their customers) safe and secure.
Sophia Young
Content Studio