84 percent of enterprises have considered encrypting all sensitive data

Security professionals are naturally concerned with protecting sensitive data within their organization and elsewhere, particularly given the increasing numbers of threats.

A new survey of more than 100 information security professionals by data security specialist Vormetric and risk management research organization IANS reveals that 84 percent of respondents had considered a security strategy of encrypting all their sensitive data.

The top reasons given for encrypting information include preventing data breaches, cited by 66 percent, fulfilling compliance or audit mandates (54 percent) and protection of financial and other assets (53 percent).

Respondents to the survey are keen to implement encryption to solve problems with securing information held in databases, laptops, emails, private clouds and big data environments. 54 percent say that their top challenge when implementing encryption is legacy technology and support for encryption. Other roadblocks include the cost of encryption technology (52 percent) and worries about performance impact (44 percent). But interestingly, and in spite of these pain points, a massive 84 percent of respondents have considered a security strategy of 'encrypt everything'.

"Not only are perceptions of difficult and expensive implementations outdated, but encryption now also enables business velocity and advantage," says Vormetric's VP of Global Marketing, Tina Stewart. "Modern encryption solutions enable organizations to not only safeguard traditional applications, but also to take advantage of cloud, SaaS services, IoT and big data without incurring new risks to data. As a result, encryption in now a critical driver of lower operational costs as well as the rapid development new services and offerings for competitive advantage and market expansion".

The full report is available to download from the Vormetric website.

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