business matters

You are here. Your data is there. Threats are everywhere. Cybercrime is on the rise. In our digital-first world, distributed workplaces and remote work routines are creating new security vulnerabilities. But how are enterprises responding to the increased threat landscape?

Vice President Strategy, Entrust

The Entrust annual Global Encryption Trends Study aims to answer this question and more by examining how and why enterprises deploy encryption. Conducted by the Ponemon Institute, the 2021 study features insights that help reveal the future of encryption use and the solutions organizations are leveraging to solve the difficulties of working across multiple cloud environments.

While IT professionals ranked protection of customer information as the most important reason for encryption, the study found customer information ranks fifth on the list of information that enterprises actually encrypt. Instead, several other data types ranked higher including; financial records, payment-related data, employee/HR data and intellectual property. Which means enterprises are leaving customer data vulnerable even though they believe it’s the top reason to deploy encryption.

Clearly, there is a disconnect between perceived threats and the realities of deploying encryption when it comes to prioritizing customer data. There are likely several reasons for this disconnect, but a key component that is revealed by the study is that encryption use tends to follow the most mature and easy-to-use applications like databases and backups/archives, as opposed to truly following specific data to all the different locations and platforms it moves to.

Additionally, the pandemic revealed weaknesses in some enterprises’ data protection strategies. Financial services, for example, became an even bigger target for fraud and other malicious activities like phishing. And according to the study, respondents in the financial services industry rated the threat of malicious insiders higher than any other industry.

To regain consumer trust, vulnerable industries need to align their intention to protect customer data with their actions. Brands that fail to protect their customers’ personal information inevitably place their reputations at risk.

The study also revealed more promising trends for enterprises. Encryption use continues to rise, with 50% of organizations reporting they have an overall encryption strategy applied consistently, while 37% report a limited encryption strategy.

Although the use of encryption is growing, it comes with challenges. In fact, managing encryption is a pain point for many enterprises today. When assessing encryption solutions, enterprises look for performance, management of keys, policy enforcement and support for both cloud and on-premise deployment. And 45% of organizations rated unified key management across multiple clouds and the enterprise as very important or important. This makes sense because the data also showed that encryption keys for cloud services, including Bring-Your-Own-Key (BYOK), are the most painful key type to manage.

The study also found that knowing where organizational data lives across on-premise, virtual, cloud and hybrid environments is a continuing issue for enterprises. In fact, 65% of organizations report that discovering where sensitive data resides is the top challenge when building out and deploying an encryption strategy.

The pandemic has put even more pressure on organizations to apply increased attention to their encryption solutions in order to protect against both internal and external threats. Whether it’s painful or not, enterprises will only benefit from prioritizing their encryption and key management solutions — especially if it means helping their customers feel more secure, and decreasing risk to their business.

Overall, it’s encouraging that customer data protection is such a high priority for organizations, but there is clearly some work to be done in turning that priority into a reality in terms of what data is actually encrypted and at what points in the data lifecycle. It’s also apparent that organizations of all shapes and sizes are looking to adopt encryption for a range of new and cutting-edge use cases, which will no doubt continue to drive innovation in the industry.

Read the full 2021 Global Trends Study to learn more.

On the 26th of August, Crawley Town FC invited 300 young football players to be personally given a Youth Development Player Card by a First Team player which allows exclusive access to all Crawley Town FC home league matches.

There will be inclusive activity-based challenges set for the youth players by the First Team squad throughout the season. The club and Community Foundation hope this will increase attendance and engagement within our younger fanbase by building a clear and connected pathway with Crawley Town FC’s First Team. Here is what Crawley Town FC and Crawley Town Community Foundation had to say about the initiative:

‘This season marks Crawley Town FC’s 125th anniversary. As a club and a community, we are grateful to everyone who has supported us on our journey to becoming an established professional football club with our own pedigree and history. During the pandemic, the club and Community Foundation have been proactive in our response to change which has allowed us to move forward into a new and exciting era. This is why we are in a position today to launch this incredible Youth Development initiative. We have already seen success in our pathway with multiple Community Foundation players currently on trial with the first team and we hope to continue this trend.’ Alex Watts on behalf of Crawley Town FC.

‘Firstly, we would like to thank all of our players and their families for continuing to support the Crawley Town Community Foundation throughout the pandemic. We are proud that our continued relationship with the club has continued to go from strength to strength and we want to keep creating memories and experiences that will live with our players forever. This project will allow us to make watching professional football in Crawley even more accessible, helping us to engage and inspire local young people who aspire to play for the Crawley Town first team one day. Hopefully, we will see everyone in the terraces soon!” Kayleigh Bowers on behalf of Crawley Town Community Foundation.

“The launch of today’s ticketing scheme is another positive step taken by both the club and Community Foundation in trying to attract the next generation of fans to Crawley Town. The players in our youth development team already have a passion for the club so the fact that we’re able to make matches more accessible for them is superb and testament to the great work that the Community Foundation and their coaches put in on a daily basis - I look forward to welcoming them to The People’s Pension Stadium over the course of the next season, starting on Saturday against Northampton Town.” - Tom Allman (General Manager)