The spate of high profile data breaches at large companies and government departments have led many to call for regulations regarding the disclosure of data breaches and the protection of that data.

A vnunet.com poll during last week's Infosec show in London asked readers for their thoughts on encryption as an answer to the tide of information leaking into the public domain.

Readers were asked whether encryption should be mandatory for all personal data held by companies and governments, and the response has been a resounding 'Yes'.

Of the 600 readers who responded to the poll, 77 per cent indicated that the data losses justify such legislation, and 17 per cent agreed that encryption should be mandatory, but that governments should subsidise the cost.

Just three per cent of those polled believe that the technology is not sufficiently mature to warrant making it mandatory, and only two per cent think that the management overheads are too high.

Encryption technology is considered by many to be an effective and affordable way of helping to ensure that when devices containing sensitive information are lost or stolen, the data cannot be accessed by unauthorised users.

The poll will be running until the end of this week, so there is still time to cast your vote.