Encryption business booms as privacy, security concerns rise

By: Agence France-Presse March 29, 2014 10:20 AM

InterAksyon.com means BUSINESS

NEW YORK - Investors are pumping millions of dollars into encryption as unease about data security drives a rising need for ways to keep unwanted eyes away from personal and corporate information.

Major data breaches at Target and other retailers that have made data security a boardroom issue at companies large and small.

And stunning revelations of widespread snooping by US intelligence agencies have also rattled companies and the public.

For venture capital, that has opened up a new area of growth in the tech business.

In February, Google Ventures led a $25.5 million round of venture funding for Atlanta-based Ionic Security, a three-year old company that works in encryption, which scrambles data before it is shipped or stored.

Other encryption companies, including Toronto-based PerspecSys and San Jose, California-based CipherCloud, have announced major fundings.

The funding rush could hearken a "golden age" of encryption, as one expert puts it. But the industry also faces barriers to a tool that until recently was not a hot commodity.

Concerns about encryption range from practical challenges, such as the difficulty users have to search their encoded data, to government opposition towards encryption.

Continued here:
Encryption business booms as privacy, security concerns rise