IT security user group the Jericho Forum plans to lobby governments to establish global common data encryption standards.

The group is pushing for changes to strict anti-encryption rules in countries such as China, Russia and Saudi Arabia, and says common practices are needed if multinational firms are to properly secure sensitive data.

'We have to attack this on a number of fronts,' said Nick Bleech, IT security director at Rolls-Royce and member of the Jericho Forum.

'We need to make governments understand that multinational companies work across borders, and we need to work on the technologies.'

As companies become more dependent on web services and internet-based products to communicate with business partners, security practices will need to move away from a 'perimeterised fortress' approach and introduce encryption at a data level, says Bleech.

'From Rolls-Royce's point of view it's a problem,' he said. 'We have 200 locations globally, from Germany to Azerbaijan, but encryption laws vary in different countries.'

Bleech says he expects that it will take three to five years before encryption practices become standardised.

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