Encrypt and Secure Data - Why It's so Important | Antivirus Software

The subject of "encrypting data" is contemporary: The number of stationary and mobile digital media and the time we spend with these media is growing. More and more communication processes in professional and private everyday life, trading processes, production processes as well as services and products are being digitized, outsourced to the cloud and thus, at the same time, sometimes more unprotected and more transparent. The “Internet of Things” is breaking into our hitherto non-digital everyday life with vehemence and will continue to dynamize data growth as a driver in the next few years.

The amount of digital data that everyone processes, stores or sends will continue to increase - the study "EMC Digital Universe" predicts a tenfold increase in the global data volume to 44 trillion gigabytes by 2020. In Germany, too, the amount of digital data is expected to increase from 230 to 1100 billion gigabytes almost fivefold.

More and More Risks - More and More Reasons to Encrypt and Secure Data

According to a Bitkom survey, 80 per cent of Germans believe that their personal data is no longer secure. At the same time, more and more people are using digital transport routes for their personal data and storing them in virtual drives outside of their own local sphere of control. This increases the risk of loss of data and privacy, as well as the likelihood of falling victim to digital crime. These are the three most important reasons and threat scenarios that speak in favour of securing and encrypting data over the long term:

·         Risk of Data Loss. Total ambivalence - although the sensitivity for data protection is high and the Germans feel enormous fear for the security of their own data, many people are still very negligent with the security of their data and their storage media. You carelessly forego virus protection programs, firewalls and regular data backups or use easily decryptable passwords.

·         Risk of Spying and The Improper Use and Disclosure of Data. According to the Bitkom study, 52 per cent of Germans fear spying on personal data by the state or secret services. Ever since the Snowden documents were published, it has become clear that the protection of individual freedom and privacy is no longer possible without precautionary measures and techniques for encrypting the hard drive and encrypting e-mails or the use of anonymization software and/or anonymization hardware secured. The outsourcing data to insecure providers of cloud solutions can increase the personal risk of being spied on. By the way: Germans are no longer so happy to trust companies with their data: According to the survey, 48 per cent are sceptical because companies could misuse personal data to third parties.

Use Antivirus Software to Encrypt and Secure Data

·         Risk of Falling Victim to Online Fraud and Cybercrime. In the statistics for cybercrime, Germany ranks first with 46 billion euros in 2014, according to the American "Center for Strategic and International Studies". In no other country in the world is the damage caused by cyberattacks about economic output as great as in this country. But not only companies are at risk, but end users are also increasingly at risk. With methods such as phishing, pharming or malware in the form of malware, Trojans and the like. Cybercriminals and hackers try to spy on and misuse personal data. Remove Trojans and, instead, programs to protect against malware are indispensable building blocks of IT security.