Dive Brief:
- A Ponemon Institute study released Tuesday found the use of encryption in the enterprise rose last year by the largest amount in the study's 11-year history.
- According to the study, only 16% of enterprises were using encryption extensively in 2005. That number rose to 34% in 2015 and 41% this year.
- The financial sector is the biggest user of encryption, with 56% of them using encryption extensively, followed by the health care industry, according to the report.
Dive Insight:
Enterprises use encryption for databases the most, followed by “Internet communications, laptop hard drives, and backups,” according to the study.
Encryption became a household word this year because of Apple’s high-profile battle with the FBI over access to the iPhone used by one of the gunmen in last December’s terrorist attack in San Bernardino.
John Grimm, senior director of security strategy at Thales e-Security, which sponsored the encryption report, said enterprises are turning to cloud providers to help them guard their data.
"The major cloud providers have done a really good job at security and a lot of enterprises are looking at the cloud providers and seeing that the cloud providers have strong procedures, and are better set up from a skills perspective," Grimm told CSO. "And I think that's a trend that we'll continue to see."
