Column-Level Database Encryption encrypts what?

• A. The entire database
• B. Data in transit
• C. Encrypting contents of a specific column in a database
• D. Encrypting user passwords

Answer: (C)

Column-level encryption focuses on protecting data in a specific column of a table, not the entire database or data while it’s moving over the network. It targets only the contents stored in that one column, so you can shield sensitive fields—like a credit card number or social security number—while leaving other columns readable. This is why the correct description is encrypting the contents of a specific column in a database: you apply encryption to that particular column’s data, rather than to every column or to data in transit.

Encrypting the entire database would be a broader, database-wide approach, which isn’t the same as column-level encryption. Data in transit refers to protection while data moves across a network, not data at rest in a table. Encrypting user passwords is typically handled by hashing (with salt) for secure storage, rather than encrypting and decrypting, since verification should not require decrypting the password.