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Organisations in the Middle East are racing to protect sensitive data as it proliferates across cloud , IoT devices and 5G networks .

adopting encryption to protect customer personal information , driven by acceleration of digital initiatives such as cloud , the Internet of things ( IoT ), 5G networks and rising data volumes and types . or malicious insiders ( 19 %), but the threats posed by hackers has increased signicantly from 25 % in 2019 .

Data discovery the number one challenge

These are some of the findings from the 2020 Middle East Encryption Trends Study from the Ponemon Institute and Entrust , a global provider of trusted identities , payments and data protection .

With the proliferation of data from digital initiatives , cloud use , mobility , IoT devices and the advent of 5G networks , data discovery continues to be the biggest challenge in planning and executing a data encryption strategy .

Threats , drivers and priorities

With the proliferation of data from digital initiatives , cloud use , mobility , IoT devices and the advent of 5G networks , data discovery continues to be the biggest challenge in planning and executing a data encryption strategy , with 63 % of respondents in the region citing this as their top concern , an increase from 58 % last year . And that is likely to increase , with a pandemicdriven surge in employees working remotely , using data at home , creating extra copies on personal devices and cloud storage .

Blockchain , quantum and adoption of new encryption technologies

The study indicates that 78 % of respondents in the Middle East have adopted an encryption strategy which is either enterprise-wide or limited to particular deployments . This is lower than the global average of 87 %. With encryption deployment a clear focus , how are organisations looking ahead ?

Protecting consumer personal information is the top driver for deploying encryption in the Middle East region ( 67 % of respondents ), 13 % higher than the global average . This outranks the need to protect intellectual property ( 59 %), protect information against specific identified threats ( 40 %) and comply with external privacy or data security regulations ( 34 %). Employee mistakes continue to be the biggest threat to sensitive data ( 60 %) and significantly outweigh concerns over attacks by hackers ( 32 %)

In the near term , 51 % of respondents plan to use Blockchain , with cryptocurrency / wallets and asset transactions cited at the top use cases . Other much-hyped encryption technologies are not on IT organisations ’ near-term radar .

Trust , integrity , control

The use of hardware security modules ( HSMs ) continues to grow faster in the Middle East than in any

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