In today’s episode of IT in Plain English, Tammy Ven Dange answers, “What is encryption?”
Encryption is basically a way to scramble data so that if the information got into the wrong hands, they can’t read it.
Your organisation is likely already encrypting some data, such as the credit card details when you process a donation or purchase. In this case, the secure gateway on your website or merchant terminal does this automatically. However, there are other data that you should consider encrypting as well, especially if you are sending it to an external party or vendor.
Here are a few examples:
- Too often, I see clients send spreadsheets with privacy data from their CRMs.
- I also see emails with similar information embedded in the body of the email.
- Most disturbingly, I’ve actually even seen documented cybersecurity vulnerabilities emailed to vendors.
Should this information get into the wrong hands, not only could it hurt your brand reputation with stakeholders, there are also potentially other major consequences such as a bigger cybersecurity threat and the loss of credit card merchant privileges due to lack of PCI compliance.
Fortunately, if you’re a Microsoft 365 user, it is very easy to encrypt an email just by going to your “Options” tab (see the picture below).
There are also tools within Microsoft and other vendors that allow you to easily share files that will be “encrypted in transit” i.e. as it moves around the internet.
So, there you have it in plain English.
If you have an IT question you want answered, feel free to connect with me here on my website or on LinkedIn and send me a message. I just might answer it on this show.
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Tammy Ven Dange is a former charity CEO, Not for Profit Board Member and IT Executive. Today she helps NFPs with strategic IT and data decisions.