Endpoint encryption solutions protect the data stored on an endpoint (i.e., a device connected to your network) by making it unreadable to anyone but a trusted, authorized user with the correct decryption key. Some endpoint encryption solutions protect individual files; others encrypt everything within the hard drive or disk on the endpoint. But both types of endpoint encryption solutions prevent cybercriminals from being able to read your company’s data. In the event that a company endpoint, such as a laptop, is successfully breached, if your data is encrypted, your data will be safe.
In order to do this, endpoint encryption solutions offer a comprehensive set of security features, including advanced encryption algorithms that are virtually impossible to crack, key management systems that help you store, organize, and recover decryption keys, and compatibility with a broad range of device types, so you can ensure all of your data is safe—no matter where it’s stored.
As well as providing an additional layer of protection should one of your business’ endpoints be compromised, endpoint encryption can help you prove compliance with auditing processes. Some solutions are designed to be compliant with specific data protection regulations such as HIPAA, which requires that patient information is encrypted when at rest (i.e., stored on a disk). This, in turn, can reduce your liability if you do experience a data breach. Thanks to all these factors, implementing encryption can greatly reduce the overall cost of a breach, both in terms of data loss and financial loss. A recent study found that comprehensive use of encryption reduces the average total cost of a breach by over $250,000.
In this article, we’ll explore the top endpoint encryption solutions for business. We’ll look at features such as encryption methods, key management, device compatibility, and user authentication. We’ll give you some background information on the provider and the key features of each solution, as well as the type of customer that they are most suitable for.
Bitdefender is a leading endpoint security provider, headquartered in Bucharest, Romania. Their endpoint solutions protect over 500 millions systems in 150 countries. GravityZone Full Disk Encryption is Bitdefender’s endpoint encryption module, which helps reduce loss or theft of data stored on fixed disks, and Windows and MacOS devices.
Bitdefender GravityZone Full Disk Encryption Features:
Pricing And Plans: GravityZone Full Disk Encryption is available as an add-on to any Bitdefender endpoint security solution. Pricing starts at £39.19/year for a minimum of three devices. Subscriptions are available annually, or for two- or three-year periods.
Expert Insights’ Comments: GravityZone Full Disk Encryption is a strong endpoint encryption solution that leverages the native capabilities of your device fleet, making it lightweight, quick to deploy, and easy to manage. We recommend Bitdefender’s solution to any organization looking for user-friendly endpoint encryption for Windows and Mac devices, which they can implement as part of a wider endpoint security stack.
Check Point is a cybersecurity company headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel. They provide a wide range of network, cloud, endpoint, and threat detection and response solutions, as well as IT compliance and management products. Checkpoint Full Disk Encryption (FDE) is available as part of their Harmony Endpoint (formerly SandBlast Agent) solution, which also offers antivirus, anti-malware, anti-phishing, VPN remote access, zero-trust application access, and a threat emulation sandbox.
Check Point Full Disk Encryption Features:
Pricing And Plans: Check Point FDE is available as part of the Harmony Endpoint Complete package (Check Point’s most advanced package). Pricing for Harmony Endpoint is available from Check Point upon request.
Expert Insights’ Comments: Check Point FDE offers high levels of security, with strong user support options to help minimize downtime in the event a user is locked out of their account. It’s important to note that, while Harmony Endpoint is available for Windows, MacOS, and Linux devices, FDE isn’t compatible with Linux and doesn’t support server encryption. Overall, we recommend Check Point Full Disk Encryption for mid-size and larger enterprises looking for encryption as part of a wider endpoint security strategy.
Headquartered in Texas, Dell Technologies is a provider of IT infrastructure and endpoint security solutions. Dell Data Protection | Encryption (DDPE) is their enterprise encryption solution for businesses, which enables organizations to protect data stored across a range of devices, operating systems, and external media.
Dell Encryption Enterprise Features:
Pricing And Plans: Pricing for Dell Data Protection | Encryption (DDPE) is available from Dell Technologies upon request.
Expert Insights’ Comments: Dell Data Protection | Encryption offers highly granular endpoint encryption, allowing admins to create and enforce policies for full-disk encryption and at the file-level. This granularity, however, does mean that the solution can be complex to configure. We recommend Dell Data Protection | Encryption as a strong solution for larger enterprises looking to secure their endpoint data—including external hard drives—against unauthorized access.
Digital Guardian (acquired by Fortra in 2021) is a cybersecurity provider based in Massachusetts, US, that helps businesses protect their data against loss and theft. Digital Guardian offers endpoint encryption as part of their cloud-delivered Endpoint Data Loss Prevention (DLP) solution, which offers a full suite of DLP capabilities, including control over all data movement, endpoint activity monitoring and logging, and risk-based incident response.
Digital Guardian Endpoint DLP Features:
Pricing And Plans: Pricing for Digital Guardian Endpoint DLP is available from Fortra upon request.
Expert Insights’ Comments: Digital Guardian Endpoint DLP offers robust encryption features alongside its other DLP capabilities. One of the platform’s greatest strengths is its data classification feature; this enables IT teams to receive alerts should sensitive information be accessed. This feature is particularly useful for organizations that need to comply with strict data protection standards such as HIPAA or PCI-DSS. We recommend Digital Guardian Endpoint DLP as a strong solution for any sized organization looking for cross-OS encryption to secure sensitive data stored on their endpoints.
Headquartered in Bratislava, Slovakia, ESET is a cybersecurity provider known globally for their lightweight solutions that protect against known and zero-day cyberthreats. ESET Endpoint Encryption is their cloud-based full-disk encryption solution. It enables IT teams to easily and centrally create security policies and manage encryption processes for all their users devices.
ESET Endpoint Encryption Features:
Pricing And Plans: ESET Endpoint Encryption is available as a standalone solution; contact ESET directly for pricing information. ESET also offers full-disk encryption with the Advanced and Complete packages of their PROTECT solution. This also offers endpoint and file server security (plus cloud app security, email security, and threat detection and response for Complete).
Expert Insights’ Comments: ESET offers a robust endpoint encryption solution that gives you a high level of security, while still being easy to deploy, configure, and manage. The platform is completely transparent for end users, whilst providing a comprehensive level of protection for data across multiple levels. Overall, we recommend ESET Endpoint Encryption as a strong solution for SMBs looking to secure the data stored on their users MacOS and Windows endpoints—including those working remotely.
Headquartered in Washington, US, Microsoft is one of the world’s largest tech companies, offering a wide range of hardware and software products for consumers and businesses of all sizes. BitLocker is Microsoft’s free, built-in encryption solution for their own line of Windows operating systems.
Microsoft BitLocker Features:
Pricing And Plans: BitLocker comes free with the Pro, Enterprise, and Education versions of Windows 10 and 11. It’s also included with Windows Server 2016 and above.
Expert Insights’ Comments: Because BitLocker is already built into all modern Windows operating systems, it’s highly easy to set up and configure. It offers a strong level of encryption (though we recommend that users utilize the 256-bit encryption algorithm), and requires no additional licensing. However, it doesn’t offer the extensive reporting capabilities of some other endpoint encryption solutions and is only compatible with Windows devices. As such, we recommend Microsoft BitLocker as a strong full-disk encryption tool for SMBs that want to secure the data on their users’ Windows devices.
Sophos is a cybersecurity provider based in Abingdon, UK. It offers a wide range of endpoint, network, email, web, and cloud security solutions. Sophos’ solutions specialize in using artificial intelligence to analyze existing threats and predict emerging ones. Central Device Encryption is Sophos’ full-disk endpoint encryption solution. The solution is cloud-based, making it lightweight and scalable. As it is cloud-managed, admins can centrally monitor and secure their infrastructure from anywhere.
Sophos Central Device Encryption Features:
Pricing And Plans: Pricing for Sophos Central Device Encryption is available from Sophos upon request.
Expert Insights’ Comments: Sophos’ encryption solution requires an agent to be installed on each endpoint. While this means it takes some time to set up, the same agent can be used to manage endpoint security delivered by Sophos. The platform is highly intuitive, with a modern, friendly UI, and extends the management capabilities of BitLocker and FileVault, particularly in terms of reporting. We recommend Sophos Central Device Encryption for any sized organizations looking to encrypt their Windows and MacOS endpoints.
Symantec is a cybersecurity company that was acquired in 2019 by California-based technology provider, Broadcom. Symantec provides a comprehensive suite of endpoint security solutions that protect endpoint against malware, viruses, zero-day attacks, and unauthorized access. Symantec Endpoint Encryption allows IT teams to encrypt their users’ devices at whatever level they need to, with the solution’s various components available to deploy standalone or as a unified encryption suite.
Symantec Endpoint Encryption Features:
Pricing And Plans: Pricing for Symantec Endpoint Encryption is available from Broadcom upon request.
Expert Insights’ Comments: Symantec Endpoint Encryption provides high levels of security with granular encryption policy configurations. The solution can slow the performance of some older operating systems due to a strain on resources, as well as taking time to completely configure. However, once configured, Symantec offers comprehensive encryption, including for mobile devices. We recommend this solution to larger enterprises looking to implement encryption across a diverse endpoint fleet.
Trellix is a cybersecurity company the was born of the merger of McAfee Enterprise and FireEye. Now headquartered in California, US, Trellix delivers a broad suite of security and intelligence tools for cloud, multi-cloud, and on-prem environments. Trellix Data Encryption enables IT teams to protect the data stored on their users’ devices, external storage, and shared servers against unauthorized access.
Trellix Data Encryption Features:
Pricing And Plans: Trellix Data Encryption is available as a part of two products. Management of Native Encryption allows IT teams to create and manage consistent policies using the in-built encryption on their devices. File and Removable Media Protection enables teams to encrypt files, folders, cloud storage, and removable media. Pricing for both products is available via Trellix upon request.
Expert Insights’ Comments: Trellix Data Encryption lets IT teams encrypt data at every level across their endpoints and offers protection for mobile devices and removable storage devices as well as Windows and MacOS devices. This makes it particularly well-suited to companies with a large number of remote workers. The platform’s security certifications and robust reporting capabilities also make it a strong option for larger enterprises that need to be able to prove compliance with strict data protection standards.
Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, Trend Micro is globally recognized as being a market leader in endpoint security. Trend Micro Endpoint Encryption is their endpoint encryption solution, which allows IT teams to secure data across a wide range of corporate-issued and user-owned devices to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive company data.
Trend Micro Endpoint Encryption Features:
Pricing And Plans: Pricing for Trend Micro’s Endpoint Encryption solution is available from Trend Micro upon request.
Expert Insights’ Comments: Trend Micro offers flexible encryption options for a diverse range of device types, with granular encryption policy configurations and comprehensive security. Compliance-based reporting features give you visibility into your network and security events. We recommend this solution to larger enterprises looking to encrypt a diverse endpoint fleet, which would benefit from policy-based encryption that can be fine-tuned to meet compliance needs.
Encryption is the process of turning data into scrambled ciphertext that can only be read by an authorized user with the correct decryption key. The decryption key turns the ciphertext back into its original format; to anyone without the key, the data will be completely illegible, rendering it useless. This process keeps data secure, even if its accessed by an unauthorized third party.
Endpoint encryption is the process of encrypting data that is stored on your endpoints. By encrypting your endpoints, you ensure that a threat actor can’t access your company data, even if they manage to breach a user’s endpoint using malware.
There are hundreds of methods that a cybercriminal could use to gain access to—or take control of—your users’ endpoints. Encryption keeps your data safe from the prying eyes of an attacker, even if they manage to tap into the device itself.
On top of that, using an endpoint encryption solution to encrypt your endpoints, and generate encryption reports, can help you prove compliance with data protection regulations that mandate data encryption. HIPAA, for example, requires that covered entities (healthcare organizations) encrypt patients’ Personal Health Information (PHI) at rest. It can also protect you against potential litigation in the event of a breach, and could even help lower premiums if you’re trying to obtain cybersecurity insurance.
So, long story short, endpoint encryption can protect your data, and it can save you money.
No matter the size of your organization or the industry you’re operating in, there are a few key features that you should look for in any endpoint encryption solution:
While these are the most important features to look for in an endpoint encryption solution, some solutions offer additional features such as a password strength indicator or file transfer encryption. It’s important that you consider and prioritize your organization’s needs before investigating solutions. We recommend trialling a solution, where possible, to make sure it’s the right one for you before you invest.
Caitlin Harris is Deputy Head of Content at Expert Insights. Caitlin is an experienced writer and journalist, with years of experience producing award-winning technical training materials and journalistic content. Caitlin holds a First Class BA in English Literature and German, and provides our content team with strategic editorial guidance as well as carrying out detailed research to create articles that are accurate, engaging and relevant. Caitlin co-hosts the Expert Insights Podcast, where she interviews world-leading B2B tech experts.
Craig MacAlpine is CEO and founder of Expert Insights. Before founding Expert Insights in August 2018, Craig spent 10 years as CEO of EPA cloud, an email security provider acquired by Ziff Davies, formerly J2Global (NASQAQ: ZD) in 2013, which has now been rebranded as VIPRE Email Security. Craig has extensive experience in the email security industry, with 20+ years of experience helping organizations to stay secure with innovative information security and cyber security solutions.