How To Protect Your Data From Theft

Legend has it that the famous bank robber Willie Sutton answered the question, “Why do you rob banks?” with “That’s where the money is.” Today’s cybercriminals focus on stealing something more valuable than money. Company and personal data are more valuable to thieves than money in a bank. From a family perspective, we can all do our part to protect our personal data. From a company perspective, there are also steps that can be taken to help safeguard customer confidential data from cybercriminals.

Here is how you can protect your family’s personal data and your customer’s data if you run a business.

Data at Rest

Data at rest is stored on a hard drive, laptop, or archived in some way. It isn’t moving across devices or networks. To protect the information that is stored on your computer or mobile devices, you need to turn on device (also called Hard Drive) encryption. This only protects the data if your device is stolen or lost. When you back-up your data to the cloud or another device, make sure you enable encryption for the backups as well. Here are the step-by-step instructions for enabling:

Windows Hard Drive Encryption

Mac Hard Drive Encryption

Android Device Encryption

Apple iOS Device Encryption

Data in Motion

Data in motion moves across the internet or through a private network, so it can be intercepted on those travels. The way to protect it as it’s being sent and received is to utilize a Virtual Private Network (VPN). If you work for a company that already provides a VPN solution, you’re in luck. If you don’t currently have a VPN or prefer to not use one provided by your company, there are many options to choose from.

Earthlink Protect +

NordVPN

TunnelBearVPN

Data in Use

If you own a business and need to protect client confidential information, make sure that only authorized individuals at the right time, right location, and on the right device can access specific data. And by the way, if you protect for Data in Use, then you are also protecting for Data at Rest and Data in Transit.

Ionic Security

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