85% of US Organizations Hit By One or More Data Breaches within the last 12 months

I just read a press release on Data protection that was pretty powerful. It comes from the Ponemon Institute's fourth annual study of encryption usage in the enterprise. The study surveyed 997 IT and security practitioners. Some key findings are listed here and you can see the report at: Encryption Reports. There are two reports listed (1) US 2009 Annual Study, and (2) UK 2009 Annual Study. the following is from the report:

• Data protection is an important part of an organization’s risk management efforts. Fifty-eight percent report that data protection is a very important part of risk management and 22 percent say it is an important part.
• Encryption of data on mobile data-bearing devices used by employees is very important or important. More than 59 percent of respondents say it is very important or important to encrypt employees’ mobile devices - a sign that organizations recognize that valuable data is more mobile than ever.
• More than 70% have fully executed or just launched data encryption strategy in their organization. Once again data encryption strategies are being implemented across a majority of the respondent participants. The majority of organizations, 78 percent, have some type of encryption strategy, up from 74 percent in 2008 and from 66 percent in 2007.
• Data Breaches continue to be a huge problem: Eighty-five percent of organizations surveyed had had at least 1 data breach in the last 12 months, demonstrating that there is no let up in breaches as this is consistent with 84 percent sited in the 2008 report. Companies suffering more than 5 data breaches rose to 22 percent in 2009 up from 13 percent in 2008.
• Encryption is mostly used to mitigate data breaches and comply with privacy and data protection regulations. In addition, there was an increase in the percentage of respondents who reported that encryption is also important to preserving brand and reputation.

Here at VAULT400 we encrypt EVERYTHING. Just another advantage of using VAULT400. Now, just time to implement!