Indian IT firms Embrace Encryption, Lacks Adoption: Study – CXOToday.com

Indian IT companies readily embrace data encryption but is at a back foot in the adoption of technology compared to global average, states a study by French security technology firm Thales.

The report reveals that organizations are increasingly adopting encryption to address compliance requirements and the escalating need to protect sensitive information from both internal and external threats and accidental disclosure.

95 per cent of organizations in India valued scalability for encryption solutions, which was much higher than any other country, global average of 29 per cent,noted the Global Encryption Trend study.

The study found that Indian organizations transfer sensitive or confidential information to the cloud whether encrypted or not at a rate that is the highest of all countries in the survey which is 70 percent while the global average is 53 percent.

the survey is based on responses from more than 5,000 IT security decision makers across multiple industry sectors in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Australia, Japan, Brazil, the Russian Federation, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and includes responses from 548 individuals in India.

As organizations embark on their digital transformation and embrace the cloud it is imperative that their most sensitive data remains secure and protected. This study is part of a global initiative by Thales to educate leaders from the private and public sectors on the privacy and data protection practices companies can follow today, said,Emmanuel de Roquefeuil, country director India, Thales.

The firm operates in strategic electronics and IT space with a focus on high-end security. It is setting up a manufacturing unit in India in collaboration with Reliance Defense for making radar and electronic warfare display system for supply to Rafale Jet.

The study highlights that the top drivers for encryption are to protect against specific, identified threats and to protect customer information. This is in contrast to the global data where compliance is, and historically always has been, the top driver for encryption. In India, compliance ranked third on the list at 55 percent.

IT operations (28 per cent of respondents) and IT security (27 per cent of respondents) have the most influence in directing encryption strategies in contrast to global data where business unit leaders have a higher influence over encryption strategy than IT operations, the study said.

Top threat to sensitive data continues to be employee mistakes (55 percent of respondents), followed by hackers (36 percent) and temporary/contract workers (31percent of respondents).

This study is a call to action for organizations in India to strengthen their security position with strong data security and encryption plans in order to secure sensitive data and adhere to risk and compliance best practices and regulations. Thales is a strong player in the Indian public sector banks and most private sector banks, securing their information with its Hardware Security Module (HSMs). It is estimated that over 90% of the card transactions in India are secured by Thales payment HSMs, said, James Cook, sales director South Asia, Thales e-Security.

In India, encryption deployment grew the most year-on-year in databases, big data, and email. Encryption of databases, Internet communications, and laptop hard drives are the most likely to be extensively deployed. In contrast, public cloud services and docker containers are least likely to be extensively or partially encrypted. 62 percent of the respondents say hardware security modules (HSMs) will be important in the next 12 months.

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Indian IT firms Embrace Encryption, Lacks Adoption: Study - CXOToday.com