By Tilo Weigandt, Co-Founder and COO of Vaultree

Encryption has a fascinating history that spans thousands of years, but it has become deeply ingrained into our business psyche with the development of public-key cryptography in the 1970s, which revolutionized digital security. Since then, it has evolved from simple substitution ciphers to complex algorithms that protect our daily digital lives. In fact, the data encryption market size is projected to grow from USD 14.5 billion in 2024 to USD 40.2 billion by 2032.

However, because of its longevity and rich heritage, there are plenty of misconceptions about encryption. In this article, I'll debunk some of the most common myths and explore how Next-Gen Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) works differently - and why it's critically important.

Every enterprise is built on data. The pillars of modern data strategies include integration and accessibility, quality and compliance, and strategic data governance. Enabling data unlocks the door to growth, innovation, and a competitive advantage. However, most organizations are forced to work with limited data access; the data they can utilize is often encrypted and must be decrypted before it can be used.

Myth 1 - Encryption is Unbreakable

While strong encryption is difficult to break, it is by no means impossible. Vulnerabilities in implementation, weak passwords, or advances in computing power (such as quantum computing) can - and will - compromise encrypted data.

Without a doubt, modern data encryption has evolved. Organizations can encrypt data, both at-rest, and when in-transit as data is moved around. However, herein lies the problem: data must be decrypted when it needs to be used.

Decryption puts data at risk and makes it vulnerable to attack, compromise, or misuse. Malicious actors don't need to try and break encryption; they just have to wait for organizations to use it - when it has been decrypted.

Myth 2 - Encrypted Data is 100% Safe

Encryption is a critical layer of security, but it's by no means a silver bullet. Data can still be vulnerable to breaches, human error, phishing attacks, identity theft or software vulnerabilities. Therefore, in an increasingly sophisticated cyber threat landscape, enterprises must assume that cyber breaches are inevitable.

This means security and IT controls must be highly preventative, securely locking data down. Legal, privacy and compliance controls should be equally punitive to deter organizations from falling out of compliance. Enterprises are afraid they will lose control of their data, and with increasing regulation and compliance requirements, they need to demonstrate their data is under control.

These two issues combined make it incredibly difficult for businesses to use secured data. Therefore, while the data might be safe, it is unusable because it is hard to access.

Myth 3 - Only Cybercriminals Use Encryption

Criminals use encrypted messaging platforms like Telegram or Signal to plan and coordinate illegal activities, making it difficult for law enforcement bodies to intercept their communications. They also use encryption to encrypt victims' data and demand payment for the encryption keys. Encryption is also used to disguise malicious software (malware) within encrypted traffic, bypassing traditional security measures like firewalls and antivirus programmes.

However, encryption is a fundamental tool for everyday privacy and security, used by global businesses, governments, and individuals to protect sensitive information like financial transactions, medical records, and personal communications. Heavily regulated industries such as financial services and healthcare - any that possess vast amounts of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) - require encryption to meet legal and regulatory standards. I would advocate that any business that wants to protect customer information and foster trust should use encryption.

Myth 4 - I Have Nothing to Hide, So I Don't Need Encryption

Privacy isn't about hiding something; it's about protecting and safeguarding personal information. We often take privacy for granted and sleepwalk into trouble by giving our data away without realizing it. Think about the impact if your identity was stolen or if your financial details and personal health records were compromised. Data privacy should be universally respected as a fundamental human right. Every individual should have access to encryption technology to keep personal information safe.

Myth 5 - Encryption Slows Down Devices

Modern encryption algorithms are highly optimized, and for most devices, the impact on performance is negligible. Currently, data is highly distributed and siloed, making centralization difficult for strategic and legal reasons, hindering its potential. Businesses need to be able to better leverage data and reduce access burdens. Before they can do this effectively, they won't be able to maximize their potential.

Of course, there are preventative workarounds, such as tokenization, data masking, and synthetic data, but these solutions don't deliver the scale, speed, and access that enterprises need. Consequently, organizations find they are hampered in several ways. Innovation is stifled, which slows product development and collaboration. This could lead to data security challenges, regulatory issues, and data enablement barriers. 

For example, a global leader in clinical trials is looking for candidates to evaluate an oncology drug that has significant R&D and financial investment behind it. If the business is prevented from accessing national healthcare registries in Europe due to strict privacy laws - that insist that no data may be removed from local servers for use - the clinical trials leader cannot access the diverse patient populations required for the trial. This is where fragmented, siloed healthcare data and strict privacy regulations make it difficult to identify the right participants across multiple jurisdictions.

Turning Encryption into a Business Enabler

If businesses cannot effectively unlock data, this will hinder their ability to develop and build for the future and may even lead to their failure. This is where the power of Next-Gen FHE (or Data-In-Use Encryption) comes into its own. Unlike traditional forms of encryption, which makes using encrypted data impossible without decryption, Data-In-Use Encryption allows software to perform computations, searches, or analytics as if the data were not encrypted. With Data-In-Use Encryption, users don't have to surrender their encryption keys and if a data leak occurs, the encryption renders it unusable to threat actors.

By integrating Data-In-Use Encryption, businesses can, for the first time, turn encryption into a business enabler to drive growth, expand markets, and maintain a competitive advantage. This is a game-changer. Over 60% of the organizations we engage with could significantly improve or rebuild their products by better-exploiting data and reducing access burdens whilst maintaining robust data security.

Data is the backbone of our digital economy; harnessing data is fundamental to business success. Imagine the possibilities if secure access to data was open, borderless, and readily available.