The 2016 “Encryption Application Trends Study,” which is based on independent research conducted by the Ponemon Institute, concluded that the biggest users of encryption are companies in financial services, health care and pharmaceutical, and technology and software industries.

But this latest version of the annual survey, which involved 5,000 respondents and covered 14 major industries across 11 countries, also examined the choice of encryption strategy an organization would use as well as other details about this form of data protection.

More Organizations Embracing an Encryption Strategy

Somewhat surprisingly, overall enterprise use of encryption rose to a level never before seen in the report’s 11-year history. Not only that, but the rate of any reported “extensive deployment of encryption” jumped to 41 percent overall usage, which was also the largest figure recorded over the lifetime of the survey.

The survey found some other characteristics of those who have been using encryption. For example, companies that are more mature with respect to their encryption strategy were more likely to deploy hardware security modules (HSMs). These modules are typically used with SSL/TLS, database encryption and application-level encryption — all the standard data protection measures for the enterprise. Enterprises are using HSMs for encryption when they can, and it seems to be working.

Encryption is most frequently used for databases, internet communications and laptop hard drives, according to the survey. This is likely just the beginning: Expect to see more of these HSMs out there as usage grows. It might even become an important design consideration for the specialized encryption strategy serving organizations in the future, particularly as industry compliance standards become more widespread.

Enterprises Must Grow Encryption Cautiously

These hardware modules may end up being the enterprise version of a gamer’s upgradeable graphic card: There’s room to grow, but the consequences are unknown. Designers looking to gain throughput may overclock them or play hardware tricks, but HSMs have to be reliable in function.

If HSMs end up expanding an enterprise’s attack surface, security professionals and their organizations will face a serious problem. That may put some counterpressure on the developers to clean up the crypto-devices.

Whether it is because of industry regulations, privacy concerns or a need to protect against a data breach, encryption is being adopted by the enterprise in record numbers.