The financial industry is obligated to ensure the security and integrity of account holder data. After all, security breaches can be devastating to individuals as well as to the reputations of breached institutions. Bank info security professionals use a number of technologies to fight back against hackers, identity thieves, phishers, and cybercriminals. One bank info security measure involves disk encryption.
Disk encryption is used to make hard disks unreadable to bad guys and snoops. With disk encryption, the entire disk is encrypted rather than individual files and folders. It's a failsafe measure that makes the disk indecipherable to anyone who does not hold the "keys" to decipher it. Like a secret code used by spies and little kids keeping secrets from their younger siblings, the encrypted contents of a hard disk are a mishmash of characters and symbols that make no sense unless you hold the secret key.
With disk encryption, the encryption and decryption are handled by complex algorithms and software. From an end-user's perspective, if the end-user knows the hard disk's password, everything else takes place automatically and the experience is transparent. The user simply turns on the computer, enters the password, and works with the data as normal. As with other bank info security measures, idle time triggers the drive to "lock" to ensure that the data remains inaccessible should the user step away from the computer.
Since cyber criminals do not have access to the "keys" of the encrypted hard disk, they cannot extract its data. If a bank executive's laptop gets lost or stolen, the data protected by disk encryption will be locked up.
Most bank info security plans address the proper disposal of computers and hard disks to ensure that their hard drives are wiped clean before recycling. However, wiping a disk by reformatting it is not good enough due to the way reformatting works. Reformatting a disk drive doesn't actually erase the contents of the disk. It merely tells the operating system that the disk's sectors are available to be overwritten by new data. Savvy data thieves know this and use inexpensive data recovery software to "recover" erased data. By using disk encryption, it doesn't matter if the data is recovered because it will be unreadable.
Disk encryption is often used on workstations and laptops. It is also used on servers and disk arrays. In short, any hard disk that stores sensitive bank info should be secured and protected through disk encryption.
However, not all disk encryption systems are built alike. Some disk encryption software is vulnerable during the pre-boot phase. Look for server and disk encryption software that does not have this vulnerability, ideally with authentication requirements at pre-boot.
Disk encryption plays an important role in bank info security both during the hard disk's useful life and long after it's been placed in storage or sent to a recycling facility. Make sure that all bank workstations, laptops, servers, and storage devices are fully encrypted by investing in disk encryption software.
Disk encryption is used to make hard disks unreadable to bad guys and snoops. With disk encryption, the entire disk is encrypted rather than individual files and folders. It's a failsafe measure that makes the disk indecipherable to anyone who does not hold the "keys" to decipher it. Like a secret code used by spies and little kids keeping secrets from their younger siblings, the encrypted contents of a hard disk are a mishmash of characters and symbols that make no sense unless you hold the secret key.
With disk encryption, the encryption and decryption are handled by complex algorithms and software. From an end-user's perspective, if the end-user knows the hard disk's password, everything else takes place automatically and the experience is transparent. The user simply turns on the computer, enters the password, and works with the data as normal. As with other bank info security measures, idle time triggers the drive to "lock" to ensure that the data remains inaccessible should the user step away from the computer.
Since cyber criminals do not have access to the "keys" of the encrypted hard disk, they cannot extract its data. If a bank executive's laptop gets lost or stolen, the data protected by disk encryption will be locked up.
Most bank info security plans address the proper disposal of computers and hard disks to ensure that their hard drives are wiped clean before recycling. However, wiping a disk by reformatting it is not good enough due to the way reformatting works. Reformatting a disk drive doesn't actually erase the contents of the disk. It merely tells the operating system that the disk's sectors are available to be overwritten by new data. Savvy data thieves know this and use inexpensive data recovery software to "recover" erased data. By using disk encryption, it doesn't matter if the data is recovered because it will be unreadable.
Disk encryption is often used on workstations and laptops. It is also used on servers and disk arrays. In short, any hard disk that stores sensitive bank info should be secured and protected through disk encryption.
However, not all disk encryption systems are built alike. Some disk encryption software is vulnerable during the pre-boot phase. Look for server and disk encryption software that does not have this vulnerability, ideally with authentication requirements at pre-boot.
Disk encryption plays an important role in bank info security both during the hard disk's useful life and long after it's been placed in storage or sent to a recycling facility. Make sure that all bank workstations, laptops, servers, and storage devices are fully encrypted by investing in disk encryption software.
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