New Ponemon Study Details U.K. Trends in Enterprise Encryption Adoption
PGP Corporation, a global leader in enterprise data security and encryption solutions, today announced at Infosecurity Europe 2007 results from a new U.K.-based study on enterprise motivations and strategies for protecting data with encryption. The Ponemon Institute's "2007 Annual Study: U.K. Enterprise Encryption Trends" shows U.K. businesses believe protecting their brand and reputation is the most significant factor in their decision to deploy encryption technology. The survey also reveals that only 9 percent of U.K. companies have an enterprise-wide encryption strategy.
This study focused on identifying trends in encryption use, planning strategies, and deployment methodologies in U.K. IT organisations. The respondents included 541 U.K.-based IT and business managers, analysts, and executives, 65 percent of whom were at the manager level or above. Key findings of the study:
- 54 percent reported brand protection and reputation as the primary drivers for encryption use
- 55 percent cited some type of encryption strategy
- Only 9 percent have an enterprise-wide strategy
- 10 percent reported using encryption for data breach mitigation
- No one reported using encryption to avoid notifying customers
- 50 percent report interest in a platform approach to centrally manage and deploy multiple encryption applications
- The platform approach offers numerous benefits: 57 percent report it reduces operational costs; 55 percent report it eliminates redundant administrative tasks
- Encryption is used across multiple applications: laptops, file servers, emails, and backup tapes
- 10 percent encrypt laptop and backup tapes (the most common combination)
Survey respondents overwhelmingly see an enterprise-wide encryption platform, which enables an organisation to centrally manage and deploy multiple encryption applications with consistent policy enforcement, as the best and most efficient approach to protecting and defending their data from breaches.
“Recent U.K. data breaches such as those at T.J. Maxx, the Halifax Building Society, and a Nottinghamshire hospital could easily have been avoided by deploying available encryption technologies,” said Phillip Dunkelberger, president and CEO of PGP Corporation. “However, the negative publicity from breaches continues to rise, tarnishing companies' brand images, damaging consumer confidence, and causing serious headaches for IT and executive management.
“Organisations need to take a hard look at their data protection strategies, and as this latest study shows, encryption should be regarded as a valuable tool for defending data,” continued Dunkelberger. “From his earlier work detailing the cost of a data breach to these encryption adoption studies, Dr. Ponemon is providing keen insight and motivation for organisations to address their security frameworks. This study represents a great opportunity for U.K. companies to benchmark themselves against their peers and to act on emerging local trends in encryption.”
A similar study by The Ponemon Institute was conducted in the United States earlier this year. U.S. respondents also overwhelmingly recognise the benefits of an encryption platform for defending their data, reducing operational costs, and eliminating redundant administrative tasks. The U.S respondents identified laptop encryption as the strategy used most often to mitigate the consequences of a potential data breach, one of the top reasons for deploying encryption.
The PGP® Encryption Platform provides a strategic enterprise encryption framework for shared user management, policy, and provisioning automated across multiple, integrated encryption applications. All PGP Encryption Platform–enabled applications leverage users, keys, and configurations to expedite deployment and policy enforcement and can be combined to provide multiple layers of security. The PGP Encryption Platform is deployed with the first PGP application installed, enabling organisations to reap best-in-class encryption in phases or as business requirements emerge and evolve.
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