Cloud Encryption
SearchStorage, Thursday, March 14th, 2024
Cloud encryption is a service cloud storage providers offer whereby a customer's data is transformed using encryption algorithms from plaintext into ciphertext and stored in the cloud. Encrypted data is unreadable and essentially meaningless without its decryption key even when the data is lost, stolen or breached through unauthorized access.
Cloud encryption is almost identical to on-premises encryption with one important difference: the cloud customer must take time to learn about the provider's policies and procedures for encryption and encryption key management. A service provider's cloud encryption capabilities must match the level of sensitivity of the data being hosted.
IT admins regard data encryption as an ultimate safeguard to ensure the security of data. It's the confidentiality piece in the confidentiality, integrity and availability triad and mandated in many compliance and regulatory standards, such as Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS), the Federal Information Security Modernization Act, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).