Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 62 | Page 29

INFOGRAPHIC other region . This year 68 % of respondents reported using HSMs to protect their encryption keys ( up from 50 % in 2019 ), tied for the top region with Germany and the US .
The top use cases for HSMs in 2020 in the Middle East are public cloud encryption ( 47 % – compared to 35 % globally ), application-level encryption ( 44 %) and to protect administrative access to Privileged Access Management solutions ( 38 % – the highest rate worldwide ).
The race to the cloud
Sixty percent of respondents say their organisations currently transfer sensitive or confidential data to the cloud and 27 % of respondents plan to do so in the next 12 to 24 months .
The region also rates support for cloud and onpremises deployment ( 92 %) as the most important feature associated with encryption solutions , far ahead of the global average of 67 %.
“ Consumers expect brands to keep their data safe from breaches and have their best interests at heart . The survey found that IT leaders are taking this seriously , with protection of consumer data cited as the top driver of encryption growth for the first time ,” said Dr Larry Ponemon , Chairman and Founder , Ponemon Institute .
“ Organisations in the Middle East are deploying encryption faster than global averages . The increased focus on cloud security and preference for encryption solutions that support both cloud and on-premises deployments underline a high level of awareness , but there is an urgent need to build a strong encryption strategy that can be applied enterprise-wide .”
Philip Schreiber , Regional Sales Director – Data Protection Solutions , Entrust , added that : “ Organisations are under relentless pressure to deliver high security and seamless access to their customer data , business critical information and applications , while ensuring Business Continuity .
“ The 2020 Global Encryption Trends Study shows the Middle East ’ s focus on protecting customer information and intellectual property to be much higher than the global average , which is laudable and shows the region setting benchmarks in this regard .”
The Middle East continues to rate training users to use encryption appropriately as a challenge more than most regions ( 21 % vs . global average of 14 %), continuing a 3-year trend . p
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