In the wake of increasing regulatory requirements from government agencies and litigation by corporations, data managers have to pay attention to the importance of storage security in almost every enterprise. Encryption is an essential security technology for data that blocks unauthorized users from accessing data even when files are stolen or hacked.
Encryption employs a mathematical algorithm that uses a unique key to convert a file into an encrypted, unreadable form. The encryption key is not accessible to anyone, and no one can access this data until it has been decrypted with the same key.
The AES 256-bit encryption standard is considered to be the most secure encryption standard currently available. Today, we will see how AES encryption has become a must-have feature for your enterprise NAS storage.
AES 256-bit encryption is the gold standard for encrypting data on NAS storage drives, and it's what protects most of the data that gets stored and shared on modern enterprise-grade network attached storage devices. Each disk drive is encrypted with an encryption key to ensure only authorized users can access your data.
This level of encryption also ensures that if someone managed to steal it, they wouldn’t be able to access the data anyway.
An AES encrypted drive is just like a regular hard drive, except it uses a higher level of encryption. AES 256-bit encryption is simply the highest level of encryption available, and it’s typically found on the best NAS systems.
AES encryption uses 256-bit keys means there are more than 2256 possible combinations of 78 digits numbers. With these many possibilities, it’s nearly impossible to crack the password.
There are two main benefits of using AES 256-bit encryption:
A hard drive or NAS storage device with AES 256-bit encryption offers more security than a standard solution. It encrypts your data using several blocks, each of which must be decrypted and reassembled before it's readable, which significantly increases the difficulty of breaking into your NAS storage drive.
Because AES 256-bit encryption renders your hard drive virtually impenetrable, it’s more reliable than a typical NAS storage drive.
AES 256-bit encryption protects your files even if the hard drive malfunctions or is stolen. Your data can't be copied or accessed without the correct password, so even if someone manages to gain access to your hard drive, they can't access your data unless they know how to decrypt it.
AES 256-bit encryption is used by banks, security, and law enforcement agencies to secure highly sensitive information as it is the strongest form of encryption available until now.
If this interests you, we suggest checking out StoneFly’s AES encrypted NAS storage drives that are available at a very low cost with additional features like deduplication, anti-ransomware support and more.