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Adoption of data encryption on the rise

A report from the Ponemon Institute found that for the first time, encryption is being strategically applied across the enterprise and is being considered as part of a comprehensive data security plan rather than a series of point solutions.

The Ponemon survey also found that non-IT leaders have become more involved in establishing encryption in their companies. The survey showed that business leaders now have the most influence over encryption strategy - even more than CIOs and IT departments. The Guardian reported that companies are also allocating more money to encryption: the amount of the IT budget spent on encryption rose from 10 to 18 percent between 2005 and 2012.

Survey respondents said that they felt data breaches were twice as likely to occur because of employee mistakes or malfunctions. Companies said that protecting their reputation is the most important motivation for using data encryption. Compliance with industry regulations was listed as the third most important reason.

The study also found that enterprises are moving toward methods like encryption software that will protect data across multiple platforms, including devices, the cloud and between networks. Companies are also using key management strategies to make sure their data remains encrypted until it is in the hands of a legitimate user. 

Search Consumerization pointed out that with more individuals accessing confidential information on mobile devices, data encryption on those devices is especially important. One study found that two out of three lost smartphones had sensitive or confidential company information stored on them. Data encryption can prevent this from becoming a problem.

"For example, if several workers use the same tablet, each worker must enter his or her own individual application PIN or password to unscramble software-encrypted data," explained Search Consumerization. "If the tablet is lost, software-encrypted data can be wiped by simply 'forgetting' the keys a self-encrypting application used, without having to render the entire user data partition or file system unreadable."

Fulfill a comprehensive encryption strategy by protecting data at rest as well as in transit. Get your SSL certificate from Thawte today to protect critical information.

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