2016 Thales Encryption Study finds organizations are actively planning widespread deployment of encryption due to increased risks and privacy compliance

RSA Conference 2016, San Francisco, CA and Plantation, FL – February 29, 2016 – Thales, leader in information systems and communications security, announces the publication of its latest 2016 Global Encryption Trends Study. The report, based on independent research by the Ponemon Institute and sponsored by Thales and Vormetric Data Security, reveals that the use of encryption continues to grow in response to cyber-attacks, privacy compliance regulations and consumer concerns and highlights that the majority of organizations plan to transfer sensitive data to the cloud within the next two years.
The global encryption study is in its 11^th year and shows how organizations around the world are dealing with increased vulnerabilities and implementation of encryption to protect their most sensitive data. We surveyed more than 5000 business and IT managers in the US, UK, Germany, France, Australia, Japan, Brazil, the Russian Federation, Mexico, India, and for the first time this year Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates, examining global encryption trends and regional differences in encryption usage.
 

Peter Galvin, vice president strategy at Thales e-Security, says: “As businesses increasingly turn to cloud services, we’re seeing a rapid rise in sensitive or confidential data being transferred to the cloud and yet only a third of respondents had an overall, consistently applied encryption strategy. Encryption is now widely accepted as best-practice for protecting data, and a good encryption strategy depends on well-implemented encryption and proper key management. Thales hardware security modules (HSMs) have provided reliable high-assurance key management for decades, and this year’s study underscores their importance in securing a wide range of critical applications.”

Critical findings continue to demonstrate the adoption of encryption solutions to reduce risk, increase organizational security posture and meet data compliance regulations.  

News facts:

• More than half of respondents (56%) are transferring sensitive or confidential data to the cloud – and this will rise to a total of 84% in the next two years
• Support for both cloud and on-premise deployment was rated the most important consideration when deploying encryption solutions
• Employee and HR data is the most commonly encrypted data – higher even than payment data, intellectual property or financial records – indicating a higher sensitivity to protecting personal information
• The number one perceived threat to data exposure is employee mistakes, followed by system or application malfunction rather than external attack or malicious insiders

Dr Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of The Ponemon Institute, says: “Mega breaches and cyberattacks have increased companies’ urgency to improve their security posture, and encryption usage continues to be a clear indicator of a strong security posture. The findings of this year’s study demonstrate the importance of both encryption and key management across a wide range of core enterprise applications – from networking, databases and application level encryption to PKI, payments, public and private cloud computing and more.”

• Download your copy of the new 2016 Global Encryption Trends Study.
• Visit Thales at booth #S1107 South Expo, RSA Conference, Moscone Center, San Francisco, February 29–March 4, 2016
• For industry insight and views on the latest key management trends check out our blog www.thales-esecurity.com/blogs
• Follow Thales e-Security on Twitter @Thalesesecurity, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube