Data Management: Encryption (Definitions)

"A method for keeping sensitive information confidential by changing data into an unreadable form." (Microsoft Corporation, "SQL Server 7.0 System Administration Training Kit", 1999)

"The encoding of data so that the plain text is transformed into something unintelligible, called cipher text." (Tom Petrocelli, "Data Protection and Information Lifecycle Management", 2005)

"Reordering of bits of data to make it unintelligible (and therefore useless) to an unauthorized third party, while still enabling the authorized user to use the data after the reverse process of decryption." (David G Hill, "Data Protection: Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance", 2009)

"To transform information from readable plain text to unreadable cipher text to prevent unintended recipients from reading the data." (Janice M Roehl-Anderson, "IT Best Practices for Financial Managers", 2010)

"The process of transforming data using an algorithm (called a cipher) to make it unreadable to anyone except those possessing special knowledge, usually referred to as a key." (Craig S Mullins, "Database Administration", 2012)

"The process of converting readable data (plaintext) into a coded form (ciphertext) to prevent it from being read by an unauthorized party." (Microsoft, "SQL Server 2012 Glossary", 2012)

"The cryptographic transformation of data to produce ciphertext." (Manish Agrawal, "Information Security and IT Risk Management", 2014)

"The process of scrambling data in such a way that it is unreadable by unauthorized users but can be unscrambled by authorized users to be readable again." (Weiss, "Auditing IT Infrastructures for Compliance, 2nd Ed", 2015)

"The transformation of plaintext into unreadable ciphertext." (Shon Harris & Fernando Maymi, "CISSP All-in-One Exam Guide, 8th Ed", 2018)

"In computer security, the process of transforming data into an unintelligible form in such a way that the original data either cannot be obtained or can be obtained only by using a decryption process." (Sybase, "Open Server Server-Library/C Reference Manual", 2019)

"Encryption is about translating the data into complex codes that cannot be interpreted (decrypted) without the use of a decryption key. These keys are typically distributed and stored separately. There are two types of encryption: symmetric key encryption and public key encryption. In symmetric key encryption, the key to both encrypt and decrypt is exactly the same. Public key encryption has two different keys. One key is used to encrypt the values (the public key), and one key is used to decrypt the data (the private key)." (Piethein Strengholt, "Data Management at Scale", 2020)

"The process of encoding data in such a way to prevent unauthorized access." (AICPA)