Many people value their personal privacy. Some build fences in their back yards to avoid leering eyes of those passing by. They may minimize the details they share online or on their social media sites, or simply avoid them altogether. There are a number of ways to protect more intimate details of your life or even your identity, but that certainly isn’t easy with so many companies collecting as much of that data as they can for sales and marketing purposes.
While the information age has brought tremendous advances in communications and productivity, it has, quite simply, put us and our privacy at risk. Identity theft and credit fraud are two of the biggest concerns for those forced to participate in our internet-driven economy today. Try signing up for a job or a loan today without inputting your social security number, address, phone numbers and other personal details. All that information is accessible to anyone with the right skills.
Sure there are precautions we can take to minimize the threats and defenses to block many of the latest schemes, but most IT professionals understand there is always someone capable of defeating those measures. The reality is that if a skilled hacker really wants to access your personal or company data, there is little to keep them from doing it. That information is extremely valuable to criminals and other miscreants.
Perhaps that explains the rapid growth of encryption technologies. These “coding” programs are highly effective tools for thwarting hackers and others who might intercept your email messages, files and other types of data. It has become a critical component of many industry compliance initiatives for that very reason: ensuring the safety of patient information, employee records and other data that may affect stockholder equity.
Despite the controversy surrounding government access to encrypted phones and files, adoption of these technologies continues to rise. MarketsAndMarkets predicts that the encryption software market will be worth approximately $4.82 billion by 2019 and, according to a recent Ponemon survey, 41% of businesses are using it today. That represents a 7% jump since 2015, the largest increase in the 11-years the research firm has studied encryption.
Those are numbers channel firms simply can’t ignore. Encryption should be a normal part of the security discussion today, ensuring that clients understand the options and benefits these technologies provide. That conversation should also extend to email and backup and disaster recovery solutions. If data could eventually be transmitted across the internet, it’s a prime candidate for encryption.
That may be oversimplifying things a bit, but it’s a good place to start the discussion with your clients. Legal and industry compliance obligations often seal the deal for encryption technologies (or technologies that include encryption, including email and BDR solutions). Many businesses simply have to have it today and some may not know it. That’s where a skilled channel professional makes the difference.
Encryption is a somewhat unique offering that requires your sales team to take the extra step. It isn’t a standalone technology ̶ it is a system or solution feature that your customers may (or may not) be willing to pay a premium for. Do your clients truly need these types of solutions? If they’re in the medical field, they definitely do. The HITECH (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health) standards require healthcare organizations (including doctors’ offices) to adhere to certain encryption and key management methodologies. Fines for those willingly neglecting these rules can exceed $50,000 per occurrence.
Similar standards apply to those who accept credit or debit cards (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, or PCI DSS), as well as publicly-held companies (Sarbanes-Oxley). And those are just the big ones. Many industry associations and trade alliances have their own encryption requirements, so a good best practice is to ask customers which groups they belong to and do a little research.
That type of consultation is invaluable today. Business owners are generally not encryption experts, nor do they know each and every rule and regulation they need to adhere to. Channel professionals who are knowledgeable and skilled in encryption will be in a much better competitive position, and surely be able to demand a premium for that expertise.
Brian Sherman is Chief Content Officer at GetChanneled, a channel business development and marketing firm. He served previously as chief editor at Business Solutions magazine and senior director of industry alliances with Autotask. Contact Brian at Bsherman@getchanneled.com
