The Ponemon Institute independently puts together a report about global encryption trends and regional differences based on interviews with over 500 IT professionals from the US, UK, Germany, France, Australia, Japan, Brazil, Russia, Mexico, India and, recently, Saudi Arabia. HR data and sensitive information of employees ranked higher in importance than payment data or financial records. Encryption is most widely used by companies offering financial services or operating in the healthcare, software or technology industries, according to the Ponemon report.”]