Study: Hong Kong companies lead globally in data encryption but find difficulty deploying it

Hong Kong has adopted enterprise encryption at one of the world's highest rates, but companies in the city have found it difficult to deploy technology and train users, according to a recent study. 

The 2020 Hong Kong Encryption Trends Study, co-conducted by nCipher Security and Ponemon Institute, has revealed that as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic most Hong Kong enterprises have accelerated their digital initiatives. 60% of the Hong Kong companies surveyed said they had a consistent encryption plan or strategy, well above the 48% global average.

Protecting personal customer information was the major driver behind data encryption adoption in Hong Kong, with 72% of respondents saying it was their top priority, 18% above the global average. The second highest driver was intellectual property protection (70%), which was also 18% higher than the global average.

Several types of data were encrypted at a much higher rate in Hong Kong compared to its global peers, including intellectual property (68% vs 49% globally), healthcare information (66% vs 25% globally), and customer data (52% vs 44% globally).

“Organisations are under relentless pressure to deliver high security and seamless access – protecting their customer data, business-critical information and applications, while ensuring business continuity,” said Ian Christofis, managing principal consultant, nCipher Security.

However, a large proportion of respondents said they had encountered difficulties implementing these measures, with 57% saying that deploying data encryption was difficult, and 24% singling out user training as a major hurdle. The survey has also shown that rising encryption use had intensified key management challenges, with about 60% of Hong Kong firms finding encryption key management to be “very painful”. Reasons for that included no clear ownership (73%) and inadequate key management tools (57%).

While 40% of respondents believed IT operations had the most influence in directing encryption strategies, nearly a quarter (23%) said no single function was responsible.

“As the world becomes increasingly digitalised, the impact of the global pandemic highlights how critical security and identity have become for organisations and individuals, both at work and at home,” said Michael Tai, area vice president, Greater China region, nCipher Security.

^{Michael Tai (left) and Ian Christofis (right)}

The study has also highlighted several key findings regarding risks and priorities. For example, company employees were found to be the highest threat to exposing sensitive data (50%), rather than hackers (34%) or system or process malfunctions (30%). In Hong Kong, intellectual property (68%), healthcare information (66%), and employee or HR records (57%) were most likely to be encrypted, and all at a rate higher than the global average.

“Consumers expect brands to keep their data safe from breaches and have their best interests at heart. Our survey found that IT leaders are taking this seriously, with the protection of consumer data cited as a top driver of encryption growth,” said Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of Ponemon Institute.

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