Why is encryption your best defence against targeted attacks?

In April 2025, a major British retail chain fell victim to a targeted attack. This was carried out by compromising a supplier, impersonating a third party and deploying ransomware. As a result, the attackers stole around 150 GB of customer data, whilst online sales and in-store collection services were disrupted for seven weeks, causing the company a financial loss of £300 million.

This example is not an isolated case: targeted attacks, which aim at a specific organisation rather than a large number of companies, are on the rise. Widely used by cybercriminals, these sophisticated attacks are often designed to steal sensitive data.

How do targeted attacks pose a threat to your business? How can data encryption help you reduce the risks?

Targeted attacks: a threat to your sensitive data

Although they require meticulous preparation, targeted attacks do not only affect large corporations. Mid-sized companies and SMEs are also at risk. Often less well-protected, they are targeted for their sensitive data: intellectual property, R&D, customer, health or financial data, and so on. This information can then be sold on, disclosed publicly, or exploited to carry out larger-scale attacks.

The level of threat to French organisations has never been higher. The instability of the geopolitical situation is fuelling an intensification of cyberattacks by groups backed by foreign states, for the purposes of espionage or destabilisation.

Targeted threats can exploit numerous vulnerabilities. Firstly, cybercriminals often resort to identity theft to deceive employees. They research the company’s ecosystem, pose as one of its partners, provide credible information and adopt the same tone to go unnoticed. The human factor often plays a role: psychological pressure, blackmail, manipulation, creating a sense of urgency… are all techniques used by attackers to achieve their ends.

Other methods involve intercepting data via an unsecured network (such as public Wi-Fi) or connecting a malicious device to an employee’s device.

Targeted attacks are becoming more sophisticated by the day, and are increasingly difficult to detect and contain. In this context, encryption is becoming the last line of defence for protecting your sensitive data.

The key role of encryption in defending against targeted attacks

Encryption uses a system of cryptographic keys to transform data into a string of unintelligible characters. Only those with a decryption key can view the information in its original format.

The principle of encryption is simple: to make your data unreadable to cybercriminals who might gain access to it, whether by intercepting a file, compromising a device or infiltrating your information system. It secures your data on two levels: at rest (when it is in storage) and in transit, when it is travelling over a network, for example between two devices. Your information thus remains protected, even in the event of a breach or data theft.

It is also a key compliance tool: data encryption is a requirement under several regulatory frameworks, such as the GDPR, the NIS2 Directive and the DORA Regulation. In other words, in the event of a data breach, having encryption measures in place can significantly reduce penalties and demonstrate your organisation’s due diligence. Furthermore, if a data breach occurs whilst your company has not implemented adequate protective measures, this can damage your reputation in the long term. Here again, encryption allows you to prove your credentials, demonstrates your commitment to security, and thus limits reputational damage.

Given that some attacks cannot be prevented, every business today must ensure its data is encrypted. Fortunately, there are solutions that can be easily integrated into your existing IT environment. Ercom offers three complementary solutions that provide end-to-end encryption: Cryptobox, a collaborative working and data transfer solution; Citadel Team, a secure messaging, audio and video conferencing solution; and Cryptosmart, which protects your data on mobile devices as well as on PCs. Contact us to protect your business from targeted attacks!