Every industry is a potential target for cybercrime, and protections like advanced encryption standards are important in any context. Still, some sectors face more pressure to embrace data security solutions than others.

The imperative to encrypt data is stronger in industries that have more to lose in a breach. These sectors must adopt advanced encryption or risk severe consequences.

How to Encrypt Sensitive Content

Encryption standards and industry-specific data concerns vary widely, but the overall process looks similar across all use cases. It begins with choosing the optimal encryption method.

Symmetric encryption — the most widely used type — is easy to implement and decrypts quickly, but introduces risks if an attacker steals the decryption key. Asymmetric alternatives are more secure because only one party has the decryption key, but it’s slower and requires more processing power.

In some cases, companies must choose an encryption key, but in many instances, these are automatically generated. Organizations choose and apply their chosen encryption method. However, this is not enough on its own. Additional protections — such as storing encrypted data in a secure location — are still necessary.

From there, parties decrypt the data before use and then re-encrypt it once they’re done. This process is often automated and some newer encryption methods can bypass it entirely.

Encryption Key Management Best Practices

Key management is crucial across all encryption methods and applications. First, organizations should determine a key length. Available sizes vary by cryptographic method, but in general, it’s best to use the longest option possible for maximum security.

Businesses must also use reliable, automated random code generators for their keys. Once they’ve created one, they should assign specific employees to manage its storage, backups and distribution. Minimizing access permissions and roles here will reduce the risks of a breach.

Keys should only transfer over secure automated systems like transport layer security (TLS). Teams should also store keys in an encrypted and monitored location apart from any other data. The same applies to backups, but backup keys should be separate from the originals. Ideally, these databases should be offline to minimize breach risks.

With these steps and best practices in mind, here are 10 sectors that must pay greater attention to encryption than others.

1. AI

The artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s success drives the demand for advanced encryption standards. Some generative models train on datasets over a petabyte in size, and many deal in user data. Consequently, attacks could expose vast amounts of customer information without encryption.

The issue is exacerbated by the fact that conventional machine learning cannot analyze encrypted data. Encrypting databases while not in use can help, but it still leaves them susceptible when the model is active. AI companies must either use newer machine learning methods or standards like homomorphic encryption to work around this issue.

Homomorphic encryption comes in a few forms, but fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) is preferable in most cases as it’s the most versatile. Since FHE is slower than most other methods, it also requires additional hardware. FHE-specific hardware accelerators do exist, but organizations can also use data centers with higher computing capacity or allot more time for machine learning tasks.

2. Fintech

Financial technology (fintech) is another industry requiring extensive data security solutions. The demand for encryption here comes from the nature of this line of work. Fintech relies on information like bank accounts and credit card numbers, so a breach would jeopardize customers’ finances.

Unlike many other industries, encryption is a legal requirement in finance. Regulations like the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard require reliable encryption methods for much data. Acceptable options include Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) 128-bit or higher, Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA) and Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC).

3. Health Care

Another heavily regulated sector in need of advanced encryption is the health care industry. While the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) does not specifically require encryption, not encrypting patient data counts as a failure to provide reasonable protection, which is required. Regulations aside, exposed patient data could have severe health and financial consequences for the affected parties.

Healthcare data also moves frequently, requiring encryption across multiple platforms. Secure medical billing services often include strong encryption measures, but hospitals must verify these features before trusting any third party. Similarly, they must ensure all systems can use the same encryption methods to keep things consistent between platforms.

4. Pharmaceuticals

The pharmaceutical industry faces similar challenges. Patient data collection is central to clinical trials, but these datasets must remain encrypted to protect the participants’ privacy.

Pharma companies can protect clinical trial data through other measures. Anonymization techniques can swap or hide details like participant names and addresses to minimize identifiers within the dataset while keeping the results useful for clinical purposes. However, they must keep some details to judge a drug’s impact across demographics. Consequently, encryption is still necessary.

Since pharma trial data moves quickly and does not require analysis in its encrypted state, the industry should focus on fast, well-proven methods. AES-128 bit is an excellent option, as it’s efficient and broadly supported. Given the sensitivity of this data, it’s also important to encrypt it both in transit and at rest, which means businesses must adopt data transfer methods that support AES or a similar standard end-to-end.

5. Manufacturing

The need for advanced encryption standards is less obvious but still pressing in heavy industries like manufacturing. While manufacturers’ data may be less sensitive than medical information, it may be more vulnerable. A lack of cybersecurity knowledge and experience has led to protection gaps, causing the industry to become a favorite target for cybercriminals.

Manufacturers experienced 2,305 security incidents in 2023, making it the fourth most-attacked sector. As the industry collects more customer data to enable personalization and more agile supply chains, these attacks will become more impactful. In light of this threat, encryption is becoming increasingly crucial in the sector.

Data in this sector moves a lot and is often accessible to many parties. Consequently, the industry must focus on end-to-end encryption in communication. Ideally, organizations use a third party that automates key management and takes care of the cryptography process so manufacturers do not have to. These security partners must support AES 128-bit encryption or RSA.

6. Education

Education is another industry seeing a rise in cyberattacks as it embraces digitization. Schools also face more severe consequences than many businesses, considering the sensitivity of their data. On average, schools dedicate just 8% of their IT budgets to cybersecurity, heightening these risks.

The education sector typically does not require active analysis of its data, so encryption is less nuanced of an issue than in industries like AI. With little need to decrypt data, schools must employ reliable end-to-end encryption standards across all applications. Asymmetric methods like RSA are preferable, given their higher security and the lack of a need for quicker cryptography.

7. Legal

Like the education sector, the legal profession deals with considerable amounts of sensitive information. While law firms are much smaller than school districts, the nature of their work requires a high degree of confidentiality.

Failing to keep data private could jeopardize attorney-client privilege or hinder fair trials. As the industry embraces AI, breaches like this could even contribute to discrimination and other unethical legal outcomes. In circumstances like this, homomorphic encryption or similar methods to enable machine learning without decrypting data may be necessary.

8. Government

Tax authorities, law enforcement agencies and other government services also hold sensitive data. In some cases, this information may be a matter of national security. Government organizations are also prime targets for cybercrime, especially state-sponsored attacks and cyber-terrorism.

Regulations like the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification extend security requirements to government contractors, not just these agencies themselves. Consequently, the need for encryption in government affects multiple industries. Given the sensitivity of this data, these standards must be among the most reliable possible. In some cases, that means embracing quantum-resistant encryption algorithms.

The NIST has highlighted four quantum-resistant encryption algorithms that government agencies and contractors should consider. These include CRYSTALS-Kyber for general cryptography purposes and CRYSTALS-Dilithium or Falcon for digital signatures, which require additional security. While other quantum-resistant methods exist, government operations should only use those the NIST has verified.

9. Energy and Utilities

Critical infrastructure is a similar case. Energy and utility organizations may not carry data as sensitive as government bodies, but they do store a lot of customer information. Attacks against these businesses can also cause widespread disruption, so advanced data security solutions are essential.

As the energy industry embraces the Internet of Things (IoT), attacks are becoming more common. The sector now accounts for over 10% of all cyberattacks globally. Encryption will not prevent these incidents, so further protections are also necessary, but it will mitigate their impact.

IoT communications require both speed and security. While AES may be ideal for its speed, RSA offers more robust protection, which may be necessary for critical infrastructure. Another promising solution is to deploy IoT devices that support elliptic-curve cryptography (ECC), which is asymmetric like RSA but works better on limited hardware.

10. Software-as-a-Service

The software-as-a-service (SaaS) industry is another popular target for cybercriminals. In this sector, the need for encryption is less about protecting SaaS providers’ data and more about guarding that of their clients. Attacks on the software supply chain are becoming increasingly common as cloud adoption rises, so advanced encryption standards must become a standard practice.

Unlike some sectors on this list, the SaaS industry already shows high adoption rates for these protections. In 2022, 72% of technology and software companies used enterprise-wide encryption solutions — more than any other industry. However, anything shy of 100% still has room for improvement. More advanced solutions like quantum-resistant encryption may become necessary in the future, too.

Like government organizations, SaaS companies should turn to NIST guidance for quantum-resistant algorithms. Where quantum defenses are not necessary, asymmetric alternatives like RSA are ideal, given their higher level of security. Machine learning services should use FHE.

All Businesses Need Advanced Encryption Standards

Virtually every industry must embrace advanced encryption standards today. However, these 10 sectors face particular pressure to do so. Failure to encrypt data in these organizations could result in extensive privacy violations, fines and even physical harm.

Encryption alone is not a complete security solution, but it is a critical step forward. Organizations in these industries looking to improve their security posture should begin here.