You are here. Your data is there. Threats are everywhere. m o c . 5 b u h t i g 2021 GLOBAL ENCRYPTION TRENDS STUDY Find out how organizations are protecting data across multiple clouds, and how your encryption strategy compares. m o PART 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 PART 2. KEY FINDINGS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 c . 5 Strategy and adoption of encryption. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 b u Trends in adoption of encryption. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 h t i g Threats, main drivers and priorities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Deployment choices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Encryption features considered most important . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Attitudes about key management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Importance of hardware security modules (HSMs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Cloud encryption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 APPENDIX METHODS & LIMITATIONS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 2021 Global Encryption Trends Study Independently conducted by Ponemon Institute LLC and sponsored by Entrust m o b u c . 5 h t i g 01 Executive Summary PONEMON INSTITUTE PRESENTS THE FINDINGS OF THE 2021 GLOBAL ENCRYPTION TRENDS STUDY1 We surveyed 6,610 individuals across multiple Since then, we have expanded the scope of the industry sectors in 17 countries/regions – research to include respondents in all regions of Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Hong the world. Kong, Japan, Mexico, Middle East (which is a combination of respondents located in As shown in Figure 1, since 2015 the deployment Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates), of an overall encryption strategy has steadily Netherlands, the Russian Federation, Spain, increased. This year, 50 percent of respondents Southeast Asia, South Korea, Sweden, Taiwan, say their organizations have an overall the United Kingdom, and the United States.2 encryption plan that is applied consistently m o across the entire enterprise, and 37 percent say The purpose of this research is to examine how they have a limited encryption plan or strategy the use of encryption has evolved over the past that is applied to certain applications and data 16 years and the impact of this technology on types, a slight decrease from last year. c . 5 the security posture of organizations. The first encryption trends study was conducted in 2005 Following are the findings from this year’s for a U.S. sample of respondents.3 research. h t i g Figure 1. Does your company have an encryption strategy? Country samples are consolidated An overall encryption plan or strategy that is applied consistenly across the entire enterprise b u FY15 37% 41% 43% 45% FY16 FY17 48% 50% 48% 44% 44% 42% A limited encryption plan or strategy that is applied to certain applications and data types No encryption plan or strategy FY18 FY19 FY20 39% 37% 15% 14% 13% 13% 13% 13% 1 This year’s data collection was started in December 2020 and completed in January 2021. Throughout the report we present trend data based on the fiscal year the survey commenced rather than the year the report is finalized. Hence, we present the current findings as fiscal year 2020. 2 Country-level results are abbreviated as follows: Australia (AU), Brazil (BZ), France (FR), Germany (DE), Hong Kong (HK), Japan (JP), Korea (KO), Mexico (MX), Middle East (AB), Netherlands (NL), Russia (RF), Spain (SP), Southeast Asia (SA), Sweden (SW), Taiwan (TW), United Kingdom (UK), and United States (US). 3 The trend analysis shown in this study was performed on combined country samples spanning 16 years (since 2005). PONEMON INSTITUTE © RESEARCH REPORT 4 STRATEGY AND ADOPTION OF ENCRYPTION 50% of respondents say their organizations have an overall encryption plan that is applied consistently across the entire enterprise. Enterprise-wide encryption strategies increase. Since conducting this study 16 years ago, there has been a steady increase in organizations with an encryption strategy applied consistently across the entire enterprise. In turn, there has been a stea