Thursday, May 15, 2014
Protecting data on lost laptops with encryption:
Laptops are easily lost or stolen. It’s embarrassing for
the person who has left the laptop in the back of the car, or let it out of
their sight at a conference or in the airport. It’s more than embarrassing for
your company however. Laptop loss or theft presents a real danger of serious data
breach, leading to security and compliance problems.
Any time any person lost a laptop while traveling. It
contained the personal data of
thousands of compensation claimants. The data included
names, phone numbers, add resses and
social security numbers. The laptop was password protected
but the information wasn’t encrypted .
This huge case highlights the need
for all confidential data to be properly and appropriately protected . Whether a laptop is lost, stolen as a crime of
opportunity, or targeted by a thief
who has specific knowled ge of your
business, the result is the same. The laptop has gone, and everything contained on it is beyond your control, and vulnerable to
abuse.
Password protection alone is not enough to protect your
data. The worst case is that there’s a Post-It note stuck on the laptop with
the password written on it. It may be that a default password is being used by more than one employee. Even a unique password
can be bypassed , because it is data
on the disk drive like everything else. If the data is not protected , neither is the password, and it can be accessed easily.
Security of data is not the only risk faced when a laptop goes missing. Compliance issues are
raised when considering potential
effects of data breaches through loss or theft. The Data Protection Act,
industry regulations such as the Payment Card Data Security Standard (PCI DSS)
and ISO 27001 require information to be kept safe and secure. A laptop
containing data that can be easily accessed
by an unauthorized user is neither
safe nor secure.
Encryption protects all your data. Once encrypted , only those who are authorized can access it. The password is part of the
encrypted data, and can’t be
discovered by someone who doesn’t
know it. Your data remains safe even if your laptop is stolen or goes missing.
Effective encryption solutions can be found in Sophos
Safeguard products. Full-disk encryption protects all confidential and
sensitive data on desktops, laptops and removable med ia.
It allows authorized users to share
data securely, easily and fast. Detailed
logs, along with compliance reports on users and encrypted
devices keep you informed . With
Sophos Safeguard you can prevent data breaches, comply with regulations, and
ensure security and data protection is up to date. Human error will always mean
that laptops are lost or left vulnerable to theft.
