Thales survey reveals record rise in use of encryption led by Financial Services, Healthcare & Pharmaceutical, and Technology companies

PLANTATION, Fla., June 28, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Thales, leader in critical information systems and cybersecurity, announces the findings of its 2016 Encryption Application Trends Study. The report, based on independent research by the Ponemon Institute and sponsored by Thales, reveals that the biggest users of encryption are companies in Financial Services, Healthcare & Pharmaceutical and Technology and Software industries.

This new study, which is part of an annual survey of more than 5,000 individuals covering 14 major industry sectors and 11 countries, focuses on how encryption is being used in conjunction with business applications in order to protect data and allows companies to benchmark their use of encryption against companies in similar industry sectors and geographies.

John Grimm, senior director security strategy at Thales e-Security, says:
"The increased usage of encryption can be traced to many factors, chief among them being cyber-attacks, privacy compliance regulations and consumer concerns.  Additionally, the continuing rise of cloud computing as well as prominent news stories related to encryption and access to associated keys have caused organizations to evolve their strategy and thinking with respect to encryption key control and data residency. Our global research shows that significantly more companies are embracing an enterprise-wide encryption strategy, and demanding higher levels of performance, cloud-friendliness, and key management capabilities from their encryption applications."

News facts:

• Companies reporting extensive use of encryption jumped 7% up to a total of 41%, the largest increase in the 11 year history of this report.
• Financial Services, Healthcare and Pharmaceutical, and Technology and Software companies are using encryption the most – indicative of the influence of regulations, privacy concerns, and the need to protect against purposeful or accidental data breaches.
• Companies that are more mature with respect to their encryption strategy are more likely to deploy Hardware Security Modules (HSMs) across a wide array of encryption applications. HSMs are most frequently used in conjunction with SSL/TLS, database encryption, and application level encryption.
• Companies with a more mature encryption strategy, and who use HSMs more extensively, consistently report lower levels of key management pain.
• Databases, internet communications (SSL/TLS) and laptop hard drives consistently top the list of areas where encryption is most frequently used.
• For cloud data protection, Financial Services companies apply encryption to data at rest, and exert sole organizational control over encryption keys, at rates that significantly exceed averages across all industries.
• Support for both cloud and on-premise deployment ascended to the second most important feature of encryption applications, reflecting the increased move to the cloud and requirements for cryptographic services that span seamlessly from the enterprise to the cloud
• Performance and latency have ascended to being considered the most critical feature of encryption applications, reflecting increased encryption adoption and the need to ensure it does not interfere with business operations.

Dr Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of The Ponemon Institute, says:
"In the 11 years the core survey has been conducted, there has been a steady increase in the use of encryption technology, with the highest increase ever in this year's results.  Along with that increase we've seen the rise of new challenges in the areas of encryption key management, data discovery, and cloud-based data storage. The findings of this study demonstrate the importance of both encryption and key management across a wide range of industries and core enterprise applications – from networking, databases and application level encryption to PKI, payments, public and private cloud computing."

Now in its 11th year, the core study surveyed 5,009 individuals across 14 industry sectors: Communications, Consumer Products, Education & Research, Entertainment & Media, Energy and Utilities, Financial Services, Healthcare & Pharma, Hospitality, Manufacturing, Public Sector, Retail, Services, Transportation, and Technology & Software in 11 countries: United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Australia, Japan, Brazil, the Russian Federation, Mexico, India and Arabia (which is a combination of respondents located in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates).

Download your copy of the new 2016 Global Encryption Application Trends Study

For industry insight and views on the latest key management trends check out our blog www.thales-esecurity.com/blogs

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About Thales e-Security
Thales e-Security + Vormetric have combined to form the leading global data protection and digital trust management company.  Together, we enable companies to compete confidently and quickly by securing data at-rest, in-motion, and in-use to effectively deliver secure and compliant solutions with the highest levels of management, speed and trust across physical, virtual, and cloud environments. By deploying our leading solutions and services, targeted attacks are thwarted and sensitive data risk exposure is reduced with the least business disruption and at the lowest life cycle cost. Thales e-Security and Vormetric are part of Thales Group. www.thales-esecurity.com   

About Thales
Thales is a global technology leader for the Aerospace, Transport, Defence and Security markets. With 62,000 employees in 56 countries, Thales reported sales of €14 billion in 2015. With over 22,000 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.

Drawing on its strong cryptographic capabilities, Thales is one of the world leaders in cybersecurity products and solutions for critical state and military infrastructures, satellite networks and industrial and financial companies. With a presence throughout the entire security chain, Thales offers a comprehensive range of services and solutions ranging from security consulting, intrusion detection and architecture design to system certification, development and through-life management of products and services, and security supervision with Security Operation Centres in France, the United Kingdom and The Netherlands.

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