Take transmission security to the highest level – what are network encryptors?

Cybersecurity plays a key role in businesses today. This is because the leakage of sensitive data can lead to serious consequences for the company, such as loss of reputation and trust, financial losses, or exposure to weakened market position due to disclosure of trade secrets. It is therefore worth investing in protecting your data and IT infrastructure.

There are many cybersecurity solutions on the market. One of them is dedicated network encryptors. What are they and how do they work? We’ll talk about it in today’s article.

The aforementioned dedicated network encryptors are specialised devices that protect data from interception during its transmission over the network. As the name suggests – they encrypt, that is, they convert information resources into an unreadable format before they are transmitted over the network, and then decode them on the receiving side. The use of cryptographic algorithms and keys ensures the confidentiality and security of transmitted data. These devices function as the first line of defence against eavesdropping.

To properly adapt the type of encryptor, it is necessary to assess the IT infrastructure present in the enterprise, analyse the network infrastructure in use, and determine the required level of protection, considering other cybersecurity technologies in use today.

What’s more, network encryptors differ in how they are used, the bandwidth of data transferred, their performance and their application area. They can operate at the network layer (a.k.a. Layer 3) or, for even greater security, at the data link layer (Layer 2). The fit depends on the user’s requirements.

Dedicated Rohde&Schwarz encryptors are separate devices from network devices such as switches or routers.

One of the main advantages of dedicated Rohde&Schwarz encryptors is the separation of network functions from security functions. An attack and seizure of access over a network device does not compromise security in any way, since separate, dedicated devices perform encryption functions.

In addition, the dedicated encryptors make it easy to draw a line of demarcation for the responsibilities of the network team and the cybersecurity team in a single organization.

These devices provide the highest stable performance with dedicated resources for encryption. A dedicated encryptor does not share resources with other network processes, making latency minimal and unchanging depending on the load of transmitted traffic.

It is also worth mentioning that Rohde&Schwarz encryptors have a secure enclosure that prevents physical access to the device’s memory. This is because any attempt to mechanically violate the casing clears the memory.