Encryption, a word primarily used by the financial and government sectors made its way into common, everyday conversations as cyber threats continue to rise. Now, almost everyone from a standard household to a large fortune 500 company can reap the benefits of encryption. Studies show that in future systems, data will most likely be stored in an encrypted format and the use of hardware security models has increased in just the last year.
Who Is Most Affected by Encryption
The Encryption process starts by encoding messages or information so that only authorized parties can access it. It essentially codes the information while it is in transit or at rest on a hardware-encrypted device to prevent an intruder from getting the data.
According to a study by the Ponemon Institute, the sectors with the highest encryption usage are technology and software, communications, and financial services. Hardware security models were most commonly used in:
- Financial services
- Retail
- Education and Research
- Technology and Software
A small group of experts on encryption formed a working group to discuss the data protection method and estimated that developers will eventually incorporate user-controlled encryption into a product under two conditions: when the customer demands encryption, and when the provider does not need access to the data for the product to work.
Common Use Cases and Employee Functionality
The Global Encryption Trends study found that 45% of organizations now have a consistent enterprise-wide encryption strategy and 60% of organizations use hardware security models for internal cryptography-as-a-service. Thus far, this year has had the highest growth in using HSM for the following cases:
- Code signing
- Big data encryption
- IoT root of trust
- Document signing
The need for one secure encryption method is obvious as 63% of organizations currently have more than six products that perform encryption. This leads to employee frustration and mistakes as key management becomes a headache for a multitude of devices. With employee mistakes as the most significant threat to sensitive data, encryption has become more prevalent than ever.
Storage of Data with User-Controlled Encryption
While some industries have a set amount of time that data must be stored, like in research purposes, the majority of businesses have no timeline for data storage. Studies show that storing data now will most likely be used for future use with Machine Learning technology. This means that the vast majority of data is not being deleted on a regular basis. The optimistic view of a future of AI robots further fuels the need for encryption for data-at-rest.
Experts predict that user-controlled encryption will only be implemented in areas where it is needed most as the need for such protection varies based on a company’s needs. It is highly likely that in the future, all technology that carries data across a network will move toward end-to-end user encryption and any messaging apps that will store copies will also utilize this method.
The Next Big Thing
The Young Entrepreneur Council is made up of professionals in all industries. Those involved with encryption gave their opinion on the future of the expanding technology.
- Quantum Cryptography–using a quantum computer to decrypt any type of encrypted data.
- Biometric Encryption–fingerprints, voice recognition, and Face ID will remove the need for remembering passwords in the future.
- Honey Encryption–produces encoded text to trick a hacker into thinking they’ve entered a correct password, but are shown text that isn’t what they wanted to retrieve.
- End-to-end encryption–only the owner can read the data and more companies will adopt it as a strategy.
- Homomorphic encryption–corporations like IBM and Intel use this for fast transmission of classified material while still retaining security.
The SecureDrives fulfill the needs of companies and individuals alike to encrypt data in an innovative and secure manner. These hardware-encrypted devices have unique authentication methods:
- The KP model is unlocked using a unique PIN on a wear-resistant keypad
- The BT model is unlocked with an app on a mobile device and offers authentication through Face ID or Touch ID.
They have capacities up to 20 TB and offer a brute force anti-hacking design.
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