Thirty-five percent of companies opt not to use encryption
A survey of 5,000 senior IT managers conducted by market research firm B2B International has found that 35 percent of organizations worldwide don't use encryption to protect data.
The study, commissioned by Kaspersky Lab, learned that 34 percent of respondents don't use file- and folder-level encryption (FLE), and 17 percent do not plan to deploy the technology in the future. Meanwhile, 36 percent don't employ full-disk encryption (FDE), and 18 percent have no plans to implement it.
FDE encrypts all data on a machine's hard drive, such as its operating system and applications, while FLE cloaks a specific set of files or folders. Not only does it protect information from attackers, but encryption also provides organizations in some states "safe harbor" from having to report a data breach if they lose personal information.
The technology, however, does bring additional cost and complexity, including processing time, key management and decryption. In other cases, it is crackable if it's based on an outdated standard.