Before starting with MyDiamo, you might have some essential questions. What is encryption? Why is it important? Who needs it? These are a few common questions that most beginners encounter when they decide to use an encryption solution. Read on to find out more about encryption and why it is needed.
What is Encryption?
Encryption is the encoding of data into a form called a cipher text, that is unreadable without authorized access. Authorized parties can only access the readable data by using its encryption key, which specifies how the cipher text was encoded. Encryption has been used for thousands of years by the government and military to facilitate the transfer of secret information. In today’s tech savvy world, it’s no longer only the government and military that uses it, but also business owners that collect customer data and anyone who holds private data in order to facilitate the transferring of private information. It has become more and more important to protect private information.
Why is it Important?
Encryption is the last guardian of a security system. Businesses, governments, and even many individuals have tried to protect their corporate secrets, classified information, or personal information from identity thieves and data hackers. To facilitate this, security software or equipment like IDS/IPS are available. However, many hacking tools and methods are sophisticated enough to sometimes penetrate these security measures indirectly, undermining all precautions taken. In these cases encryption is a valuable last line of defense. Technically speaking, encryption does not hide or guard files, but simply makes their content unreadable even if stolen. This is why it is regarded as the last guardian of data.
Who Needs It?
Every business and government body should utilize encryption for protecting confidential information. Most companies and their customers view it as a means of maintaining information secrecy and minimizing fraud. Healthcare companies should protect their Protected Health Information (PHI) in order to comply with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). For them encryption and decryption of PHI are required by law.
How Should It Be Applied?
In the past, system developers created their own encryption environments. These developers usually applied encryption at the file-level, but such development took a lot of time and capital. Instead, many entities can now apply encryption through a comprehensive encryption software.
MyDiamo
MyDiamo is a unique form of encryption software for MySQL, MariaDB, and PerconaDB. MyDiamo provides “Column-Level Encryption” which means that users are able to encrypt only the data that they wish to hide, not entire files. The benefits of column-level include high performance, easy management of data, and additional security features like access controls and data auditing.
