Encryption Adds Extra Layer of Security to Sensitive Data

With tales of outgoing employees taking off with confidential corporate data and mobile workers losing laptops and USBs while on the road, it’s extremely important that data is kept safe from prying eyes.

Encryption offers an extra layer of security to keep lost data safe by rendering data worthless to unauthorized users. Algorithms convert data into ciphertext so that it can’t be cracked.

The Triple Data Encryption Algorithm (TDEA) uses the Data Encryption Standard three times over to ensure data is kept safe and secure. The National Institute of Standards and Technology offers a recommendation for the Triple Data Encryption Algorithm (TDEA) Block Cipher. In it, the NIST defines the mathematical steps necessary “to cryptographically protect data using TDEA and to subsequently process such protected data.”

The document provides such tidbits of information as a list of 48 keys that should be avoided because they produce four distinct subkeys that are considered weak. You’ll also find a list of primitive functions that are “critical to the strength of the transformations resulting from the algorithms.”

While the recommendation is geared toward federal organizations, it can most certainly be tailored to fit your organization’s encryption needs.

Below are more tools from our IT Downloads library that will help keep your data safe. One will get you up to speed on encryption basics and the other offers guidance on the Secure Hash Standard as specified by the NIST.

Encryption Basics: Encryption has become a more accessible technology for securing your data, both in transit and on storage devices. But it still is not simple. The information in this article will help you grasp the basics of encryption tactics and standards.

Guide to the Secure Hash Standard: This standard specifies hash algorithms that can be used to generate digests of messages. The digests are used to detect whether messages have been changed since the digests were generated.