Indian firms value scaling encryption, lag in adoption: Study

Indian IT firms value scaling of data encryption but lag in adoption of the technology compared to the global average, says a study commissioned by French security technology firm Thales.
"95 per cent of organisations in India valued scalability for encryption solutions, which was much higher than any other country, global average of 29 per cent," the Global Encryption Trend study said.
However, it found that 82 per cent of organisations in India covered in the study embrace some type of encryption strategy while global average is of 86 per cent
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.

"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," Thales, Country director India, Emmanuel de Roquefeuil said.
The company operates in strategic electronics and IT space with focus on high-end security. It is setting up manufacturing unit in India in partnership with Reliance Defence for making radar and electronic warfare display system for supply to Rafale Jet.

The study found that Indian firms led globally in adoption of cloud technology with 75 per cent of organisations transferring sensitive or confidential information to the cloud - whether encrypted or not - compared to global average of 53 per cent.

The top drivers for encryption in India are to protect against specific, identified threats and 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 per cent," the study said.
As per the study, 62 per cent of the respondents in India feel hardware security modules (HSMs) will be important in the next 12 months for encryption or key management strategy which is almost in line with global average of 61 per cent.
"This study is a call to action for organisations 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 e-Security, director for sales in South Asia, James Cook said.

Most of the Indian IT firms are of the view that top threat to sensitive data is from mistake of employees followed by hackers and temporary contract workers, the study said.
"Top threat to sensitive data continues to be employee mistakes (55 per cent of respondents), followed by hackers (36 per cent) and temporary or contract workers (31 per cent)," the study said.