Protecting your data from unauthorized access is essential. Encryption serves to protect sensitive information. It converts data into an unreadable form during storage and transmission so that only people with a special key can access it. Encryption is one of the most important functions of any backup tool, especially when backing up and synchronizing data in networks or in the cloud.
What’s Encryption?
Encryption refers to the process of modifying data so that it cannot be read without the appropriate key. Even if someone intercepts or steals this data, the content is inaccessible to them. The aim of encryption is to preserve the confidentiality and integrity of data, regardless of whether it is stored locally or transmitted over the Internet.
Why is encryption important for backups and synchronizations?
Whether data is synchronized in the cloud or on different devices, encryption protects this information from unauthorized access. It ensures that data remains secure both during storage and transmission.
- Protection against unauthorized access: Encryption limits access to data exclusively to authorized persons, even if the storage location or transmission channels are compromised.
- Compliance with legal requirements: Especially with regard to data protection laws such as the GDPR, encryption ensures that personal and other sensitive data is adequately protected.
- Confidentiality during transmission: Especially when synchronizing data over networks or the Internet, encryption prevents third parties from intercepting or viewing the information during transmission.
How does encryption work?
Each encryption uses a special algorithm to convert data into a form that can no longer be read without the correct key. There are two basic types of encryption:
- With symmetric encryption, the same key is used to encrypt and decrypt data. This key must be stored securely and made accessible only to authorized users.
- Asymmetric encryption uses two keys – a public key for encrypting and a private key for decrypting data. This type of data protection is primarily used for communication on the Internet.
Common Encryption Protocols
To ensure strong security, we rely on proven encryption protocols and standards. One of the best-known and most secure standards is AES (Advanced Encryption Standard). AES provides an efficient and powerful way to use symmetric encryption and is widely used in cloud storage and backups.
RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman) is widely used for asymmetric encryption. RSA is often used in security-critical communication protocols such as SSL/TLS, which enable secure data transfer over the Internet.
The OpenPGP file format, as used by PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) and its open source counterpart GPG (GNU Privacy Guard), is suitable for secure file exchange with asymmetric encryption.
Depending on the type of protocol and the key length used, the security of encrypted data can be significantly increased. Longer keys make it more difficult for attackers to decrypt the data. In practice, experts recommend a minimum key length of 2048 bits for RSA and 128 to 256 bits for AES.
More security through encryption
Encryption is an essential security mechanism required for both backups and data synchronization. It protects against unauthorized access and ensures data integrity and confidentiality. In a digitalized world, encryption remains the key to securely storing and transmitting data.