Report Cites Decreased Security Breaches Via Encryption Solutions
SafeNet Inc. recently announced the availability of a new research report on encryption and key management that shows the increased degree to which organizations have deployed encryption technologies in order to protect sensitive data.
Conducted by the Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company, this comprehensive study also provides valuable information on the approaches organizations have taken to lower operational costs, reduce risk, establish consistent security policies, and sustain regulatory compliance.
"The Aberdeen Group's research is proof positive that companies should and are employing holistic strategies to encryption and key management," said Andy Solterbeck, vice president of product management, commercial security division, SafeNet. "Using full-disk, database, storage, and application encryption products, in combination with hardware security modules (HSMs), tokens and smart cards, companies are safely protecting sensitive information thereby preventing potentially devastating data breaches."
According to the report, Best-in-Class companies-the top 20 percent of aggregate performance scorers-are investing in automated key management and key distribution capabilities to cope with and benefit from a broader use of encryption. Compared to all companies surveyed, the Best-in-Class supported 1.9 times more keys with an estimated 34 percent lower total annual cost on a per-key basis.
The report showed an 81 percent increase in the number of application types/use cases using encryption year over year. Of that 81 percent, the Best-in-Class organizations had a 64 percent increase in total percentage of data identified as sensitive year over year, resulting in an 82 percent decrease in the number of exposed or potentially exposed data. Comparing this to the remainder of the industry whose increase in the total number of data identified as sensitive fell below 50 percent, they experienced an increase in the number incidents of exposed or potentially exposed data reaching up to 33 percent year over year.
The Aberdeen Group also noted growth projections in specific product markets including data-at-rest (DARP) which has a year over year forecast growth of more than 100 percent; and HSMs are forecasted to grow more than 50 percent. For a complete copy of the Aberdeen Group report on encryption and key management, visit www.safenet-inc.com/aberdeen.