Data is the lifeblood of our digital world and for most organizations its most valuable asset. Data continues to grow in volume year-over-year and so too does data theft and compromise. Recent estimates show cybercrimes could cost the world $6 trillion annually by 2021, up from $3 trillion in 2015.
Here are some other eye-opening data stats to consider:
- Each person on earth will generate an average of about 1.7 MB of data per second.
- Nearly 90 percent of all data was created in the last two years.
- Worldwide, people are already generating 2.5 quintillion bytes of data each day.
- Compared to other industries, government data security requirements have a much longer shelf life, up to 50 years in the case of official intelligence.
- The 2020 Thales Data Threat Report found that 46 percent of all data is now in the cloud, and 43 percent of that data is sensitive.
Protecting data in the Information Age is hard work and continues to be a challenge for CISOs with data traveling across platforms from the data center to public cloud and to edge environments. These challenges will intensify as technologies advance, digital transformation grows, and consumer demand for data in the 21st century – and the trends, patterns, and efficiencies data mining produce – increase. As technologies like AI and IoT mature, a larger attack surface emerges with more devices, more data, and more communications network to protect.
If you love your data, it’s time to protect it with the strongest encryption available. The Information Age and its fast-approaching successor, The Quantum Age, requires those responsible for securing online environments to move from the fortress mindset to securing data, where it travels, and who can access it. In the quantum era, conventional cryptography solutions are bound to fail due to the complexity and frequency of cyberattacks and the processing power of a quantum computer – capable of breaking today’s encryption standards in mere minutes. As a result, advanced quantum cryptography solutions and quantum-safe systems are required to ensure that data is future safe.
While some may push back and argue that a quantum computer is still decades away, this thinking is shortsighted and could put your organization and the data you love at risk. Here’s why:
- With current PKE systems, the encryption keys and data travel together. An attacker needs only to compromise one connection to obtain secret information.
- History shows cryptographic transitions can take years to complete which is why The National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) put forth recommendations in 2016 encouraging all organizations to begin preparing then for the quantum cryptographic break. That was five years ago!! Have you started to prepare?
- Attacks known as “harvest today, decrypt tomorrow” are happening now.
Quantum Xchange helps organizations deliver on the promise of data in the 21st century by offering an affordable and practical pathway to quantum readiness and an infinitely stronger cybersecurity posture now. With our future-proof, quantum-safe key exchange in place, organizations can fully leverage data as a strategic asset and provide the protection and security that their customers, partners, and investors expect and deserve.
This Valentine’s Day, show your data-in-motion the love it deserves by protecting it with a quantum-safe key distribution system like Phio TX.
