What is encryption, and why is it important for your business?

Everyone has heard of encryption; far fewer people can say what it does. It’s worth knowing, because it protects your business every day, and the places it isn’t switched on are where data tends to leak.

The short answer: encryption scrambles information so that only someone with the right key can read it. Steal encrypted data without the key and all you get is gibberish.

How encryption works

Think of a locked box. The information goes in, it’s locked with a key, and only someone holding the matching key can open it again. With digital encryption the “box” is a mathematical process and the key is a very long number.

There are two main kinds:

• Symmetric encryption uses one key to lock and unlock. It’s fast, so it’s used for big jobs like encrypting a laptop’s whole drive.
• Asymmetric encryption uses a pair of keys: a public one anyone can use to lock something, and a private one only you hold to unlock it. It’s how secure websites and digital signatures work.

Most real systems use both: asymmetric encryption to agree a key safely, then symmetric encryption to do the heavy lifting.

Where your business already uses it

• Websites. The padlock in your browser means the connection is encrypted (HTTPS).
• Microsoft 365. Email, Teams and files are encrypted on Microsoft’s servers and on their way to you.
• Messaging. Apps like WhatsApp encrypt messages end to end, so only the sender and recipient can read them.
• Card payments and online banking. Both are encrypted between you and the bank.

Why encryption is important

1. It makes theft and loss much less damaging. A stolen laptop with an encrypted drive is a hardware loss, not a data breach. Without encryption, whoever has it can read everything on it.
2. It protects data on the move. Files sent by email, uploaded to the cloud or carried on a USB stick are exposed in transit. Encryption keeps them private.
3. It helps you meet UK GDPR. The law expects “appropriate technical and organisational measures” to protect personal data, and Article 32 names encryption as one. If a device that’s lost was properly encrypted, the risk to people is usually low, which can mean there’s nothing to report to the regulator. See what happens if you fail to notify the ICO.
4. It lets you share and work in the cloud with confidence. Sensitivity labels with encryption (included in Microsoft 365 Business Premium) keep chosen files protected even if they end up in the wrong inbox. See how to encrypt files in OneDrive.

Where the gaps usually are

In our experience with small businesses, the problems are rarely the clever stuff. They’re these:

• Laptops without drive encryption. It was never switched on, or the recovery key is saved nowhere useful.
• USB sticks and external drives. They carry client data, unencrypted.
• Sensitive documents emailed as plain attachments. Share them securely instead.
• Old phones and laptops. They get thrown out or sold without being wiped.

All of these can be fixed centrally: your IT provider can turn on and enforce encryption across every company device and keep the recovery keys safe.

What has changed since we first wrote this

• Ransomware uses encryption against you. Attackers encrypt your files and demand payment for the key. Encryption doesn’t protect you from that; backups you can restore do.
• AI raises the stakes. If data is stolen, AI tools make it quicker for criminals to sift through it for anything valuable. Encrypted data stolen without its key can’t be mined; data taken from a signed-in device or account is already unlocked.
• Quantum-safe encryption is coming. Large quantum computers are expected to break some of today’s encryption. The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre has set out a timeline for organisations to complete the move to quantum-safe methods by 2035. For most small businesses this will arrive through software updates from Microsoft and other suppliers, which is one more reason to keep systems up to date.

Where an AI agent helps

Encryption protects data at rest and in transit; the newer leak is staff pasting it into AI tools:

• AI Data-Guardrail Agent ↗: stops company data leaving for public AI tools.

See all our agents in the solutions library on jerait.ai ↗, or find the right agent for your business on jerait.ai ↗.

The catch: the AI an agent runs on is paid for by use. With Jera IT support, your first agent is built, supported and maintained free; we give you a rough idea of the usage cost before you commit, and a real figure from the trial.

How Jera can help

We switch on and enforce encryption on the devices we manage for businesses across Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeenshire, and set up secure file sharing in Microsoft 365. Not sure every company laptop is encrypted? Book a call and we’ll talk through how to find out.