Data Encryption is Hard to Do: Best practices for successfully deploying and managing data encryption on laptops

Practical suggestions and best practices from Fiberlink's Professional Services organization on how to deploy data encryption software on laptops on schedule - and make sure it's really running.

Data encryption has become a "must-have" technology to prevent the loss of confidential data when laptops and mobile devices are lost or stolen.

But to paraphrase the old song: "Data Encryption is hard to do."

The challenges of deploying and managing data encryption on remote devices are illustrated in a recent report from the United States Government Accountability Office. The GAO auditors found that despite directives dating back to 2006 to deploy data encryption, only 30% of data was actually encrypted.

And in several cases systems that were thought to be encrypted actually weren't (much to the chagrin of NASA and the US Department of Agriculture).

But you can deploy data encryption successfully by following best practices developed by Fiberlink's Professional Services organization for:

• Determining objectives and selecting a data encryption technology
• Planning the project and designing the solution
• Preparing and configuring the software
• Rolling out the solution.

And success rates can also be further improved if you have a tool that monitors the deployment of encryption across the organization, documents the status of encryption software on remote systems, and identifies and remediates problems.