Cloud adoption and escalating threats accelerate encryption deployments, finds latest Thales Global Encryption Study

The report reveals enterprises have accelerated adoption of encryption strategies, with 41 percent of respondents saying their organization has an encryption strategy applied consistently across the enterprise. Notably, for the first time in the study's 12-year history, business unit leaders have a higher influence over encryption strategy than IT operations. Other critical findings demonstrate that organizations continue to show a preference for control over encryption and key management when those activities migrate to the cloud.  

Protecting data at rest in the cloud:

• 67 percent of respondents take one of two routes: they either perform encryption on premise prior to sending data to the cloud, or encrypt in the cloud using keys they generate and manage on premise.
• 37 percent said their organizations turn over complete control of keys and encryption processes to cloud providers.

Other key findings:

• 31 percent are currently using or planning to use Hardware Security Modules (HSMs) with Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) deployments, with 20 percent claiming the same for Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) deployments. Overall, usage of HSMs with CASBs is expected to double in the next 12 months (from 12 percent to 24 percent).
• Use of HSMs among organizations grew to its highest level ever, at 38 percent; of those respondents, 48 percent own and operate HSMs on-premise in support of cloud-based applications.
• At 55 percent, compliance is the top driver for encryption – followed closely by protecting enterprise intellectual property (51 percent), customer information protection (49 percent) and protection from external threats (49 percent).

Dr. Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of The Ponemon Institute, says:
"The accelerated growth of encryption strategies in business underscores the proliferation of mega breaches and cyberattacks, as well as the need to protect a broadening range of sensitive data types. Simply put, the stakes are too high for organizations to stand by and wait for an attack to happen to them before introducing a sophisticated data protection strategy. Encryption and key management continue to play critical roles in these strategies."

John Grimm, senior director of security strategy at Thales e-Security, says:
"This year's findings align with key trends, demonstrating an increased reliance on the cloud, ever-evolving internal and external threats, and new data sources mandating stronger protection. The survey further reinforces that cloud key management offerings are more important than ever – and business-leader involvement is crucial to a sound security strategy. Thales is attuned to this development and to its customers' need for strong and flexible safeguards for the cloud. Recently, for example, we announced integrations with AWS, Google, Microsoft and Salesforce cloud platforms. Our support encompasses BYOK, key management as a service (KMaaS) and RESTful API use cases, with additional collaborations on the way."

The Global Encryption Trends Study is now in its 12th year. The Ponemon Institute surveyed more than 5,000 people across multiple industry sectors in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Australia, Japan, Brazil, the Russian Federation, Mexico, India, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The new 2017 Global Encryption Trends Study can be downloaded for free at: https://gets.thalesesecurity.com.

Industry insight and views on the latest key management trends can be found on the Thales e-Security blog at https://blog.thalesesecurity.com.

Follow Thales e-Security on Twitter @Thalesesecurity, and on LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube.

About Ponemon Institute
Ponemon Institute is dedicated to advancing responsible information and privacy management practices in business and government. To achieve this objective, the Institute conducts independent research, educates leaders from the private and public sectors, and verifies the privacy and data protection practices of organizations in a variety of industries.

About Thales e-Security
Thales e-Security is the leader in advanced data security solutions and services that deliver trust wherever information is created, shared or stored. We ensure that the data belonging to companies and government entities is both secure and trusted in any environment – on-premise, in the cloud, in data centers or big data environments – without sacrificing business agility. Security doesn't just reduce risk, it's an enabler of the digital initiatives that now permeate our daily lives – digital money, e-identities, healthcare, connected cars and, with the internet of things (IoT), even household devices. Thales provides everything an organization needs to protect and manage its data, identities and intellectual property, and meet regulatory compliance – through encryption, advanced key management, tokenization, privileged-user control and high-assurance solutions. Security professionals around the globe rely on Thales to confidently accelerate their organization's digital transformation. Thales e-Security is part of Thales Group.

About Thales
Thales is a global technology leader for the Aerospace, Transport, Defence and Security markets. With 64,000 employees in 56 countries, Thales reported sales of €14.9 billion in 2016. With over 25,000 engineers and researchers, Thales has a unique capability to design and deploy equipment, systems and services to meet the most complex security requirements. Its exceptional international footprint allows it to work closely with its customers all over the world.

Positioned as a value-added systems integrator, equipment supplier and service provider, Thales is one of Europe's leading players in the security market. The Group's security teams work with government agencies, local authorities and enterprise customers to develop and deploy integrated, resilient solutions to protect citizens, sensitive data and critical infrastructure.

Thales offers world-class cryptographic capabilities and is a global leader in cybersecurity solutions for defence, government, critical infrastructure providers, telecom companies, industry and the financial services sector. With a value proposition addressing the entire data security chain, Thales offers a comprehensive range of services and solutions ranging from security consulting, data protection, digital trust management and design, development, integration, certification and security maintenance of cybersecured systems, to cyberthreat management, intrusion detection and security supervision through cybersecurity Operation Centres in France, the United Kingdom, The Netherlands and Hong Kong.

SOURCE Thales

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