With data privacy in the spotlight, encryption use grows

Enterprise use of encryption technology continues to grow as companies seek to ward off cyber threats, assuage consumer concerns and comply with privacy regulations, an annual survey shows.

The survey, sponsored by Thales for its 2013 Global Encryption Trends Study, shows that 35% of businesses across eight IT markets - including Australia - have adopted an enterprise-wide encryption strategy. Last year, only 29% had done so.

What’s more, only 14% do not have any kind of encryption strategy in place, down from 22% in 2013.

The poll was conducted by the Ponemon Institute. Some 4800 business and IT managers were surveyed in the US, UK, Germany, France, Australia, Japan, Brazil and Russia.

Most organisations choose to deploy encryption to lessen the impact of data breaches, the results show, although the top perceived threat to sensitive information is employee mistakes rather than external attacks.

With major stories such as the NSA surveillance scandal throwing consumer privacy into new light in 2013, more businesses are also taking their commitment to preserving customers’ personal information more seriously.

The survey shows that 42% of organisations were deploying encryption primarily to serve their customers’ interests and meet their privacy commitments, up by five percentage points from last year.

Encryption is also seen as a way of dealing with regulatory compliance. Nearly half of organisations that believe they have an obligation to disclose data breaches also believe that encrypting the data creates a safe harbour provision which relieves them from having to disclose the actual breach.

Respondents cited discovering where sensitive data actually resides and the ability to deploy encryption technology effectively as the two biggest challenges involved with executing a data encryption policy.

Image courtesy of Elsamuko under CC