Director of Cybersecurity, Clay Calvert Talks Encryption with GovTechWorks

Clay Calvery, Director of Cyber Security at MetroStar Systems discussed the intricacies of encryption and how businesses must assess the full spectrum of encryption.

There are real consequences to such decisions, said Clay Calvert, director of Cyber Security for MetroStar Systems and a former network engineer on contract in the State Department.

“I have worked in one federal system where I have to type in five different passwords and secondary tokens to get where I have to be to do my job,” he said.

Beyond inconvenience, encryption can also degrade performance. For example, a trial using Android Lollipop’s native Full Disk Encryption slowed down read performance in Google’s Nexus 6 device by 62.9 percent.

“Security exists on a spectrum, with security on one end and convenience on the other,” Calvert said. “You have to decide as the business owner where that needle needs to be. When you have an encrypted laptop, you need a passcode before the system even boots up, and if you lose the encryption key, you’re done. People complain about that.”

Read the full article: Protecting Data Means Balancing Security vs. Convenience