File encryption is one of the most effective security solutions. Combined with advanced security controls, it gives your business comprehensive data protection. But what is an encrypted file, and how does file encryption work to keep your files private? 

What is file encryption?

File encryption is a way of encoding files, including the sensitive data they contain, in order to send them securely. The encoding prevents unauthorized access and tampering by malicious actors. It keeps a file from being read by anyone except the person or people for whom it was intended.

File encryption works through the use of complex algorithms. An encrypted file is one that has had an encoding algorithm applied to it to scramble the data. The file becomes unreadable once scrambled, but the effect is only temporary. The encrypted data comes with a key the sender provides. This key usually takes the form of a password or passphrase, such as a string of alphanumeric digits, which enables decryption.

What is file encryption software?

Encryption software is software that uses cryptography to prevent unauthorized access to digital information. Cryptography is used to protect digital information on computers as well as the digital information that is sent to other computers over the Internet. File encryption software is a software platform that uses encoding solutions to prevent unauthorized access to your files. In a world increasingly full of attacks and breaches, this tool is the key to keeping your data safe.

Data in transit

Data in transit is data that is being sent over a computer network. When the data is between two endpoints, any confidential information may be vulnerable. The payload (confidential information) can be encrypted to secure its confidentiality, as well as its integrity and validity. A symmetric key is preferred to over the private and public keys as a symmetric cipher is much more efficient (uses less CPU cycles) than an asymmetric cipher. There are several methods for encrypting data in transit, such as IPsec, SCP, SFTP, SSH, OpenPGP and HTTPS.

Data at rest

Data at rest refers to data that has been saved to persistent storage. Data at rest is generally encrypted by a symmetric key. Encryption may be applied at different layers in the storage stack. For example, encryption can be configured at the disk layer, on a subset of a disk called a partition, on a volume, which is a combination of disks or partitions, at the layer of a file system, or within user space applications such as database or other applications that run on the host operating system.

Transit of data at rest

When there is a need to securely transmit data at rest, without the ability to create a secure connection, user space tools have been developed that support this need. These tools rely upon the receiver publishing their public key, and the sender being able to obtain that public key. The sender is then able to create a symmetric key to encrypt the information, and then use the receiver’s public key to securely protect the transmission of the information and the symmetric key. This allows secure transmission of information from one party to another.

Performance

The performance of encryption software is measured relative to the speed of the CPU. Thus, cycles per byte (sometimes abbreviated cpb), a unit indicating the number of clock cycles a microprocessor will need per byte of data processed, is the usual unit of measurement. Cycles per byte serve as a partial indicator of real-world performance in cryptographic functions.

How to encrypt your files with EEFD

EaseFilter Encryption Filter Driver (EEFD) provides you a comprehensive security solution, to develop the transparent on-access file level encryption products. It allows you to encrypt the newly created files transparently. You can authorize the on-access encryption/decryption under the control of client-defined policy. 

Even though you have a lot of encryption libraries in the market, but it is still very complex to develop a reliable transparent on-access file encryption product. The EEFD is a mature commercial product. It provides a complete modular framework for the developers even without the driver development experience to build the on-access file encryption software within a day.