Secure Your Business

In small business we often miss the boat on data security. It’s probably because we’re “small”, and maybe we think small means nobody will bother trying to gather anything from us. Well, in fact, it is quite the opposite. Small can mean vulnerable.

Think about sensitive information that you store electronically. Do you keep any customer records on your computer? How about credit card numbers? Do you keep any personal and business financial records on your computer? How about your or your customer’s trade secrets? Chances are, you are storing something electronically that should not be shared with the world.

This is where data encryption comes into the picture. Data encryption is the process of taking electronic data and scrambling it so that it can only be read by someone that knows the key to unscrambling it.

There are a few different options for handling data encryption. If you just want to encrypt your hard drive or a removable USB drive you can use an open source (read: free) product called TrueCrypt. It’s a little complicated, but with use of the beginners guide you could be up and running hard drive encryption quickly.

One of the drawbacks to TrueCrypt is that you can’t easily use it to send encrypted emails. That’s why we use a commercial full-fledged product from PGP Corporation. Their Desktop Professional product is only $199 and includes whole disk, usb, and email encryption. We are of no affiliation to PGP Corporation other than we use their encryption products.

The first step to successful encryption is for you to do an inventory of your unsecured electronic data and decide what you should be encrypting. Then you can make a decision on what product you want to use to do the encrypting. Then buy and/or install the product and begin encryption.

If you use a laptop, you should do as Scott Simmonds suggests and get a theft protection service, like LoJack, as well. With an encrypted hard drive the thief won’t be able to access sensitive information, and with LoJack you’ll hopefully get the laptop back!

Of course, you could always just stick to the old fashioned encryption process of paper and lock-and-key. But, my guess is that’s not an option for anyone in this day in age. Start encrypting today!

Dan
My wife encrypts everything she says and I still don’t have the key