Which term describes encryption that protects data during transmission and at rest?

• A. Tokenization
• B. Data Masking
• C. Encryption
• D. Data Archiving

Answer: (C)

Protecting data with encryption is about turning readable data into unreadable ciphertext so only authorized parties with the key can read it, whether it’s moving across networks or stored on disk. Encryption used for data in transit (like TLS on networks) and at rest (like AES on storage) ensures that even if the data is intercepted or breached, it remains unreadable.

Tokenization substitutes sensitive data with non-sensitive tokens and is not encryption itself, even though it can reduce exposure in some systems. Data masking hides parts of the data for display or testing, not actual encryption of the underlying data. Data archiving is about long-term storage of data and doesn’t inherently describe encryption.

So the term that describes encryption protecting data during transmission and at rest is encryption.