Protects data by transforming it into unreadable cipher
text.

Only users with the user-defined password and the cryptographic file can
decrypt this cipher text and read the original data.

Why encrypting data?

Encryption is used to protect your assets, your organization, or customers’ sensitive
data. Encryption can protect data from internal or external leakage.

In Big Data environments, large volumes of data from many sources are collected,
manipulated and stored in various formats. Encryption helps reduce the risk of
sensitive data exposure.

Encryption is also recommended or required for compliance with data protection
laws.

Considerations for data encryption

• Define the type of the data to be protected: data in transit or
  data at rest.
• Identify the scope of the data to be protected: purpose,
  ownership, access, etc.
• Provide strong passwords for the cryptographic file.
• Do not reuse passwords for different data encryption
  operations.
• Store passwords in a secure password management system.
• Make sure only authorized users get access to the password and
  the cryptographic file necessary to decrypt back data.
• Strong encryption methods generally increase required resources.
• Separate the cryptographic file from the encrypted data to keep
  your data secure.
• It is advised to use different cryptographic files to encrypt
  different datasets.
• Data encryption is not a complete security approach. Combining different
  security layers help address concerns about sensitive data. Security layers
  include vulnerability assessment and management or anti-malware solutions.

Data encryption methods

The data encryption process

To encrypt data, you can either generate a password protected
cryptographic file or use an existing one.