In today’s digital age, privacy policies are one of the leading priorities in business. Safely and effectively storing and transferring data is a serious undertaking and requires much time and effort. With the recent and much-publicized breaches of privacy involving the NSA, Sony, and other sources, securing your personal and business data has never been more important.

Privacy concerns are exactly why secure data delivery services and data loss prevention solutions are so useful. Data storage equipment such as servers or “the cloud” are frequently used by businesses but not without problems. In 2013, for example, approximately 47% of cloud users lost some kind of data and were forced to restore it using backup storage. Of those 47%, nearly two-thirds of them failed to retrieve all of their data. Needless to say, data delivery methods are essential for any business, and can easily affect business if something goes wrong.

In order to better prepare for data security, it is important to learn a few basics about data delivery services. There are a variety of programs and services to choose from. One of the most popular services is called File Transfer Protocol, or FTP. What is FTP? FTP is a standard network protocol used to transfer files between a “client” and the “server.” FTP is unique in that it uses separate control and data connections between hosts. What is SFTP? Another service, Secure File Transfer Protocol, or SFTP, uses an encrypted, private network protocol to transfer files between hosts.

Many data delivery services use encryption to secure digital information. Encryption is the process of converting readable text, or “plain text,” into unintelligible language, or “ciphertext,” to protect data from outside hackers. Encryptions use algorithms when creating ciphertext and require a “key” to either lock or unlock the data (sometimes both).

What do you think about data security? Feel free to leave a comment or question at the bottom. More.