A Key To Security In The Custom System Channel

Page 1 of 2

Like many IT security technologies, encryption has undergone a kind of reinvention.

Often the invisible solution, encryption for years has been offered by companies such as PGP as a way to protect data both at rest and in motion.

And to this day the biggest deployments of encryptions are around e-mail, which has gained ground in the SBM, and endpoints with products such as PGP Whole Disk Encryption and PGP Universal Gateway Email and Desktop Email.

But the dearth of new mobile devices, compliance regulations and cloud technologies set the stage for encryption to experience a kind of renaissance while paving the way for channel partners to invoke new conversations with end user customers.

In general, analysts and other industry experts agree that the growth potential for encryption appears to be primed for an upswing. Studies show that sensitive and financial data is increasingly at risk as more information is stored on mobile devices such as laptops and smartphones. According to the Gartner Group, one laptop is stolen every minute, while 25 percent of all PC users suffer from data loss each year.

"There's increased interest in encryption. A lot of companies have realized how vulnerable their company is about the data online," said Tim Matthews, director of product marketing for Symantec, formerly of PGP. "There's an increase in consumers concerned about their own privacy, their own proprietary information and want to keep their data secure."

Meanwhile, a Ponemon Institute annual "Cost Of A Data Breach," survey released in January 2010, determined that end user organizations experiencing a data breach will pay an average of $204 per lost record, for a comprehensive cost of more than $6 million. In addition, 36 percent of all breaches studied involved lost, misplaced or stolen laptops or other mobile computing devices such as smartphones or laptops, while stolen mobile devices jacked up the per-record cost of a data breach to $224 per compromised record.

"It's not just a value- add. Encryption is a necessity," said Luigi Giovannetti, co-founder and vice president of CPU Sales and Services, based in Woburn, Mass. "I think that someone has to get burnt or get in trouble for someone else to say, that could have been me. Someone has to learn the hard way."

That's where the channel comes in. The myriad of new technologies opens up gaping opportunities for system builders and solution providers.

Experts say that the proliferation of mobile technologies in the workplace, such as laptops and smartphones--particularly consumer devices--will further propel encryption growth. As such, experts say that mobile encryption is still at the beginning of its growth curve.

In addition to USB sticks and laptops, encryption for mobile devices will likely experience an upswing on consumer smartphones, such as Droids and iPhones, as well as personal BlackBerrys, especially as more users rely on their own personal mobile devices for work-related use.

"With things getting more portable nowadays, there needs to be portable encryption on the go, anywhere in the world," said Jordan Grill, product development manager for ENC Security Systems, which recently launched the EncryptStick software platform, designed to store important files within an unlimited number of encrypted vaults on any type of hard drive, flash drive and network server.

"Flash drives are just the tip of the iceberg of portable devices. On Blackberrys, a lot of that information is not encrypted. If important documents are not being secured, you're responsible," Grill said.

Subsequently, IDC projects that the encryption market is likely to reach $1.7 billion by 2013, driven, in part, by a slew of data protection laws such as HITECH, HIPAA and the UK Data Protection Acts, which require organizations to encrypt sensitive information and uphold privacy standards. Looking ahead, compliance appears to be an integral component of future encryption growth, experts say.

"There's a lot more legislative action that mandates the use of encryption if they want to be free of civil lawsuits," said Symantec's Matthews. "That backdrop has caused a lot more attention and probably will cause a lot more growth. It's a worldwide trend."

A few states have taken legislative initiatives even farther, initiating state-wide encryption laws, and more are expected to follow suit. Encryption was subsequently brought to the forefront of the U.S. legislative conversation this March. The implementation of a new Massachusetts law outlines a detailed set of security standards designed for mitigating the risk of a security breach; it requires that organizations implement encryption, protecting transmitted records and files containing personal information that travel the entirety of the organization's networks, as well as all data traveling over wireless networks and all personal information stored on laptops and other mobile devices.

1 | 2 | Next >>

Tweet

   

More Components & Peripherals