Data encryption will cut major data breaches

Industry incident research has confirmed that data encryption can help reduce the threat and occurrences of major data breach and data loss situations, but unfortunately most organizations are still not properly utilizing data encryption techniques.

The study, conducted by PGP Group at the Ponemon Institute, found that a third of the businesses that were able to report they did not suffer a data loss incident used an enterprise wide encryption policy.

However, the report also showed that those who suffered from frequent data loss incidents did not have an encryption policy, or had one that was enforced inconsistently throughout the entire enterprise.

All of the firms that reported over five loss data incidents (12% of the organisations polled) did not have an encryption strategy in use.

About half of UK businesses utilise encryption according to the Ponemon Institute, as the study findings showed 57% of UK organisations had some form of an encryption solution and 36% had at least a partial encryption strategy for data that is classified as highly sensitive, such as credit card numbers or departmental activities.

In the businesses where encryption techniques were found, they were mostly used on file servers, databases, and the Virtual private networks.

Encryption was least likely to be used on the mainframes and VoIP lines.

Smartphones were also found to be left unprotected, with 13% deeming encryption on a smartphone completely unnecessary and only 34% reporting it should be considered for data protection on portable devices.

The study involved over 615 different IT professionals that work both in the public sector and at private enterprises and found that data loss and breaches are up this year from last year’s figure of 60%, to 70%.

Private sector businesses were most likely to experience data loss incidents, making up 3.38% of the businesses with data loss incidents, followed closely by financial services at 3.11% and the education sector at 2.73%.

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