Question 1

What is Encryption Software?

Accepted Answer

Companies use encryption software to protect the confidentiality of their data, ensure that only intended parties can access the data, and reduce their liability if the data is inadvertently exposed or hacked.  
 At a basic level, encryption software protects data by converting normal data into scrambled, unintelligible data that is rendered unusable to others. Most commonly, companies use encryption software to protect sensitive data such as their customers’ personally identifiable information (PII), proprietary company data such as trade secrets, and communications such as company emails or business instant messaging. Encryption can be applied to files, folders, disks, other storage products including cloud storage, and for secure communications such as transferring data over networks.  
 Encryption has historically been used for protecting military communications, however, with the rise of the internet and online storage, many companies use encryption to protect corporate assets, as well. Particularly with the increasing cyber threats and requirements from data protection and data privacy regulations, more and more companies are using encryption software to protect their data and reduce risks and liability in the event the data is lost or stolen. In fact, many data privacy regulations specifically cite properly encrypted data as sufficiently protected and therefore either out of scope of the regulation or subject to less intensive regulatory scrutiny.  
 Encryption software works by using modern cryptography methods to convert data from legible plaintext to unintelligible ciphertext using a pair of cryptographic keys. The original data is converted from plaintext to ciphertext using an encoding key known as a cipher, while the permissioned recipient of the data would use the corresponding decoding key to decrypt the data in order to return it to usable plaintext. Without the appropriate decryption key, the data is virtually unusable by interceptors or other non permissioned parties.  
 Cryptographic keys to both encode and decode encrypted data come as either symmetric or asymmetric keys. With symmetric keys, the key used to encode the data is the same key needed to decode it. This requires the key itself to be closely guarded.  With asymmetric keys, however, the two keys are different—one key is a public key and the other key is a private key. A public key can be openly distributed to other parties, while the private key should be closely protected by its owner. A message can be encrypted using a recipient’s public key of the key pair, while only the recipient’s private key has the ability to decrypt it. Companies can protect and manage their encryption keys by utilizing encryption key management software solutions. 
 What Types of Encryption Software Exist? 
 Encryption software can be used to protect data at rest, such as data stored in files and folders, data in transit, such as data being transferred over networks or mobile devices, and more recently data in use, particularly when processing data stored in cloud storage. 
 Encryption for data at rest 
 Data at rest is data that is in storage and is not actively being used. This data can be stored on physical storage devices, in databases, data warehouses, on mobile devices, laptops, other endpoints, and in cloud storage. Data encryption software is used to protect this data from being accessed, modified, or stolen while at rest. Common types of encryption solutions for these include file encryption, folder encryption, database encryption, full-disk encryption, hard drive encryption, USB encryption, application encryption, and other storage encryption. 
 Encryption for data in transit 
 Data in transit is data that is traveling over networks like the internet, internal corporate networks like corporate local area networks (LAN), and mobile networks. Data in transit is sometimes referred to as data in motion, as well. Encryption is used for data in transit to prevent plaintext data from being intercepted by unauthorized persons like hackers. If the data is encrypted and intercepted while in transit, the data has little or no value to the party that intercepted it. Common types of encryption solutions for data in transit include network encryption, mobile data encryption, and website encryption. 
 Encryption for data in use 
 Risks to data in use are becoming more prevalent as more companies employ cloud computing resources to analyze data. Previously, unencrypted data was most at risk of interception or unauthorized disclosure during states of transit or at rest, but with greater use of processing in cloud computing, data can become susceptible to inappropriate disclosure or leaks during processing, as well. To address this risk, companies are beginning to utilize a technique known as homomorphic encryption.  
 Homomorphic encryption allows the processing of data while it remains encrypted; homomorphic encryption does not require the dataset to be decrypted prior to processing. Companies can store encrypted data in the cloud, run operations on that encrypted data without decrypting it, and the results of that computation will remain in an encrypted format, requiring the same encryption key to decrypt the computational results as would be needed to decrypt the initial data set.

Question 2

What are the Common Features of Encryption Software?

Accepted Answer

The following are some core features within encryption software that can help users: 
 Encryption layer: Encryption software may be tailored to the medium needing to be encrypted. Specific encryption software can include solutions for full-disk encryption, file encryption, database encryption, data encryption, application encryption, endpoint encryption, network encryption, email encryption, and other communication encryption.   
 Encryption key management: Some encryption software solutions include encryption key management functions within their offerings. Encryption key management software handles the administration, distribution, and secure storage of encryption keys.  
 Encryption algorithms: There are many encryption algorithms available with different strengths and speeds. One of the most common encryption algorithms is the Advanced Encryption Standards (AES), which is used by the US military, known as military-grade encryption. The most common AES encryption types are AES-128 encryption or AES-256 bit encryption, known as military-grade encryption. Other common encryption algorithms include Rivest–Shamir–Adleman or RSA algorithm, Triple Data Encryption Standard (TripleDES), Blowfish encryption algorithm, Twofish encryption algorithm, the international data encryption algorithm (IDEA), and more.

Question 3

What are the Benefits of Encryption Software?

Accepted Answer

Encryption software helps companies meet regulatory compliance and operationalize their data security models. In particular, encryption technology can help companies achieve parts of the CIA triad, which stands for confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data, a commonly used security model.  
 Confidentiality: One of the primary use cases for using encryption software is to protect the confidentiality of data, particularly sensitive data like PII. In the event that data is intercepted by an unsanctioned party, encrypted data is rendered virtually useless.  
 Integrity: In addition to protecting the confidentiality of data, it is important for companies to trust that the data has not been tampered with, particularly when data is in transit. Encryption helps ensure that data has not been deleted or modified by unauthorized parties as it moves. 
 Reduced legal risk or compliance: Many data privacy and data protection regulations specifically cite encrypted data as sufficiently secured and subject to no or less stringent regulatory measures. Encryption can be particularly useful for working with datasets such as PII, protected health information (PHI), and payment card industry (PCI) data.

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