Encryption has become the standard go-to method of securing sensitive files worldwide. From governments and corporations to simple tools like VPNs, it is everywhere around us today.
But how much has it changed over the years? Here is a quick look at current encryption statistics and trends.
Top 7 Statistics for Encryption (Editor’s Pick)
- As of 2021, 95% of Google-indexed websites used HTTPS encryption.
- Almost 50% of data breaches happen in the cloud.
- Intellectual property data was the most routinely encrypted in 2022.
- SMEs are expected to increase cloud encryption spending from 2023 – 2033.
- 83% of companies did not encrypt their cloud data in 2021.
- In 2021, 35% of organizations with cloud-encrypted data used their own encryption.
- Almost 50% of organizations used hardware-based security encryption in 2022.
Infographic
<a href="https://vpnalert.com/resources/encryption-statistics/" target="_blank" data-wpel-link="internal"><img src="https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/top-7-encryption-statistics.png" alt="Top 7 Encryption Statistics" width="768" border="0" height="852.48" loading="lazy" fetchpriority="low" srcset="https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/top-7-encryption-statistics-768x853.png 768w, https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/top-7-encryption-statistics-270x300.png 270w, https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/top-7-encryption-statistics-922x1024.png 922w, https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/top-7-encryption-statistics.png 1200w" sizes="auto"></a>
General Encryption Stats and Trends
1. Technology and Software companies led in encryption adoption.
In 2022, over 72% of companies dabbling in technology products and services had at least one level of encryption safeguarding their most sensitive assets.
This is a massive jump from just 55% in 2020.
Other sectors that have also taken encryption seriously include Manufacturing (71%), Energy and Utilities (71%), and Education (68%).
<a href="https://vpnalert.com/resources/encryption-statistics/" data-wpel-link="internal"><img src="https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/encryption-adoption-industry.png" alt="Encryption Adoption by Industry Statistics" width="768" border="0" height="427.48661633493" loading="lazy" fetchpriority="low" srcset="https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/encryption-adoption-industry-768x427.png 768w, https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/encryption-adoption-industry-300x167.png 300w, https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/encryption-adoption-industry-1024x570.png 1024w, https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/encryption-adoption-industry.png 1457w" sizes="auto"></a>
2. As of 2021, 95% of Google-indexed websites used HTTPS encryption.
American websites led the way, with over 22 million using SSL by default.
3. There are over 240 million SSL certificates on websites in 2023.
Top SSL encryption providers include SSL by Default, with 30.66% of the market share, and LetsEncrypt in second with 30.44%.
4. Over 6 in 10 organizations had an encryption strategy in 2022.
This was the highest in the last 20 years. It, however, made sense since 72% of organizations were victims of a data breach in the past year.
5. Employee mistakes are still a significant threat to sensitive data, irrespective of encryption.
As of 2022, employee mistakes accounted for 47% of all sensitive data breaches in most organizations. Other contributing factors included system malfunctions (32%), hackers (29%), temporary workers (28%), and malicious insiders (20%).
<a href="https://vpnalert.com/resources/encryption-statistics/" data-wpel-link="internal"><img src="https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/data-breach-factors-non-encryption.png" alt="Statistics for Non-Encryption Factors Responsible for Data Breaches" width="768" border="0" height="400.0768702814" loading="lazy" fetchpriority="low" srcset="https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/data-breach-factors-non-encryption-768x400.png 768w, https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/data-breach-factors-non-encryption-300x156.png 300w, https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/data-breach-factors-non-encryption-1024x533.png 1024w, https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/data-breach-factors-non-encryption.png 1457w" sizes="auto"></a>
6. Intellectual property data was the most routinely encrypted in 2022.
With a 2% drop from 2020, intellectual property was the most encrypted in 47% of organizations. This was followed by employee data (46%), financial records (45%), payment data (43%), customer info (40%), and healthcare data (22%).
<a href="https://vpnalert.com/resources/encryption-statistics/" data-wpel-link="internal"><img src="https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/most-routinely-encrypted-data.png" alt="Most Routinely Encrypted Data Statistics" width="768" border="0" height="851.87464387464" loading="lazy" fetchpriority="low" srcset="https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/most-routinely-encrypted-data-768x852.png 768w, https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/most-routinely-encrypted-data-270x300.png 270w, https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/most-routinely-encrypted-data-923x1024.png 923w, https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/most-routinely-encrypted-data.png 1053w" sizes="auto"></a>
7. Over 5 in 10 interested encryption adopters did not know where sensitive data resides.
55% of a 2022 survey’s respondents claimed not knowing where confidential and sensitive data resides kept them from adopting encryption strategies.
Another 32% attributed the challenges to budget constraints, and the initial encryption deployment process limited 30%.
8. Protecting customer data was the leading driver for encryption in 2022.
53% of respondents cited the need to protect customer data.
Another set of respondents was interested in dealing with known threats (50%), protecting company intellectual assets (48%), and complying with data security regulations (43%).
Cloud Encryption Statistics
9. Almost 50% of encrypted data breaches happen in the cloud.
Companies using a public cloud model have 45% of their data breaches in that cloud environment. This amounts to $5.02 million in losses, compared to a relatively smaller $4.24 million loss for companies with a private cloud.
10. The cloud encryption market is expected to hit $45.6 billion in 2033.
Cloud encryption represents about 4.5% of the total cloud security market in 2023. Likewise, the global cloud encryption market stands at $3.1 billion in 2023.
11. Cloud encryption adoption in North America is expected to go up.
An increase in cyber attacks is projected to push the adoption of cloud encryption solutions in North America by 71.5% by 2033.
12. SMEs are expected to increase cloud encryption spending from 2023 - 2033.
Cloud encryption spending by small and mid-sized enterprises is expected to grow 16.8 times during the forecast period.
13. The Homomorphic encryption market amounted to $150 million in 2021.
It is projected to hit over $300 million by 2030, growing at a 9% CAGR.
14. 33% of the cloud encryption market is dominated by the top 5 vendors in 2023.
Some top players dominating the market include IBM, Trend Micro, Sophos Group PLC, WinMagic, Atos, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
15. 83% of companies did not encrypt their cloud data in 2021.
Likewise, 24% of American organizations primarily used cloud storage for all their data, opening the door to expensive losses.
16. In 2021, 35% of organizations with cloud-encrypted data used their own encryption.
Conversely, 55% of such organizations used the cloud service provider’s encryption solutions to secure their cloud servers.
17. 47% of firms have stored over 60% of their most sensitive data in encrypted cloud platforms.
According to the 2022 survey, another 64% of respondents claim that Data Discovery impeded their encryption adoption.
Software & Hardware Encryption Statistics
18. AES is not the only encryption method.
Besides the commonly used Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), other alternatives include Triple Data Encryption Algorithm (TDES), Rivest-Shamir-Adleman encryption (RSA), Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC), Twofish, and Blowfish.
| Encryption | Creation Year | Encryption | Creation Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Triple DES | 1974 | DSA | 1991 |
| Diffie-Hellman | 1976 | ECC | 1985 |
| RSA | 1977 | IDEA | 1990 |
| Skipjack | 1983 | RC4 | 1987 |
| ElGamal | 1985 | Camellia | 2000 |
| SHACAL-2 | 1998 | Serpent | 1998 |
| AES | 1997 | MARS | 1997 |
| Blowfish | 1993 | HC-128 | 1998 |
| Twofish | 1998 | Cast5 | 1996 |
| PGP | 1991 | ARIA | 2003 |
19. The encryption software market is forecasted to reach $18 billion in 2026.
The market grew by 14.1% in 2021-2022, represented by a movement from $9.36 billion to $10.67 billion in 2022. Based on this trend, the market will almost double to $18.91 billion by 2026.
20. North America led in encryption software adoption.
As of 2021, the use of encryption software was the highest in North America.
However, the Asian Pacific region experienced the fastest encryption adoption globally in the same timeframe.
21. Hardware Security Modules (HSM) usage grew to 49% in 2022.
This is up from a 26% deployment rate in 2013. Likewise, 49% of survey respondents used encryption/decryption technology to secure their multi-cloud environments better.
22. Almost 50% of organizations used hardware-based security encryption in 2022.
That is up from 38% in 2017-2018, with companies in the USA, Middle East, and Germany likely to deploy this encryption technology.
23. The hardware encryption market is projected to hit $357 million by 2027.
At the close of 2022, the hardware encryption market stood at $283 million.
It is projected to soar above $350 million in four years. India alone will account for $11 million in that same period.
24. SSH keys were the most difficult encryption keys to manage in 2022.
57% of respondents found SSH keys the most challenging to manage.
This was closely followed by external cloud keys (54%) and signing keys (52%) in the top three.
| Encryption Keys | Management Difficulty |
|---|---|
| SSH | 57% |
| External Cloud | 54% |
| Signing | 52% |
| End-end user | 43% |
| TLS/SSL | 42% |
| Payments-related | 36% |
| Archived data | 32% |
25. “System performance” is considered highly important in encryption setups.
A 2022 survey identified other influential factors, such as policy enforcement and key management.
Encryption Fun Facts
26. It takes 9.1732631e50 years to break an SSL encryption.
The 256-bit encryption is so secure that a string of 1 billion computers performing 2 billion calculations per second would not breach it in time.
27. AES 256-bit encryption is the most robust encryption since 2001.
The Advanced Encryption System is the most modern and strongest encryption standard worldwide. It was chosen by the US government to protect all critical data in 2001, and major organizations and VPN providers now adopt it.
28. Enigma was the most advanced encryption device in World War 2.
During the second world war, Germans used the Enigma device to share encrypted information with the Japanese without interception from their enemies.
The secret code was eventually cracked by Alan M. Turing, an event that contributed to Germany and her allies losing the war.
29. Egyptian Hieroglyphs are the earliest forms of encryption known to man.
The ancient Egyptian writing system involved the use of special symbols called hieroglyphs. To this day, not much is known about what these symbols mean.
Wrapping Up
Sometimes, all it takes to stop common cyber attacks is prudent encryption-related behavior on the user’s part, like using strong passwords, changing them regularly, and investing in affordable security tools like VPNs.
Encryption is the future, and you can read our detailed guide that breaks down all types of encryption and how they are used.
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