Stuck at the DMV? Reply to some email. Waiting to get your car washed? Review an upcoming press release. Stuck in traffic? Edit the monthly sales forecast - send it back. At the airport? You get the point.
(Dear California Highway Patrol Officer, I would never text and drive, I swear… honestly, please stop staring at me, okay, okay, I’m putting it down.)
Most people don’t even think twice about doing work wherever they are thanks to the vast array of mobile devices on the market. What’s scary is how comfortable we are throwing sensitive data around and storing it on unsecure devices without even a thought of whether or not it’s safe to do so. So… how does an organization enable their workforce to continue the working experience they’ve grown used to but have the peace of mind that they’re not going to end up on some news wire explaining how they lost 200,000 customer records or worse? The answer is actually quite simple, encrypt what you’re sending. By the way, the latest Ponemon report states the cost of a data breach to an organization is $194 per record. Ouch.
Whenever I talk to people about encryption, I feel like it gets a bad rap because of how things used to be. People tell me, “It’s really complicated,” or “It slows my computer/device to a halt.” And you know years ago, they were right, it did. But that’s really not the case anymore. Here at Symantec, our goal has been to couple the encryption capabilities of our PGP Technology with user interfaces and behind the scenes software so users aren’t bogged down. Normal everyday routines remain just that, normal everyday routines.
In our latest release, we’ve enabled iOS mobile device users to not only view encrypted email, but to compose, reply, and forward encrypted email as well. We’ve also brought encrypted email viewing capability to Android devices. This way, users get their email straight on their devices like normal and don’t have to go online and log into another gateway to retrieve and reply to their messages, your email stays in house. For Dropbox users, our File Share Encryption software allows users to encrypt files automatically and then directly sync those files to their Dropbox folder. Files remain encrypted even in the cloud, cloud share administrators can’t access them and neither can bad guys should a breach occur; only authorized users can access the files. With File Share Encryption for iOS, users can also securely view these encrypted files directly on their iOS devices.
Unfortunately, we’re all human and mistakes happen. The great thing about encryption is it allows us to go about our normal lives with the knowledge we’re safe from prying eyes, even when we make a mistake. A fact that lets many compliance and IT security departments sleep well at night and can ultimately reduce organizational costs when it comes to audit remediation and potential legal fees down the road. To learn more about our Encryption products, visit go.symantec.com/encryption.
And for the record, other things I swear I’ve never done…
- Lost my iPhone
- Had my iPad stolen from a car a friend forgot to lock
- Put account contacts, sales presentations, and purchase orders on a commercial cloud sharing site
Yes… I’m human too.