Cryptography, Backups, and Data Governance
- Explain data protection across storage, transit, use, and recovery
- Apply the idea to evidence from a realistic technology scenario
- Justify a decision using security, reliability, cost, and user impact
Cryptography, Backups, and Data Governance
Encryption protects readable data with keys; hashing supports integrity checks and password verification; digital signatures support integrity and origin. Data governance also asks what should be collected, who needs it, how long it should remain, and how it is destroyed.
Decision lens
Strong technical decisions connect evidence → mechanism → impact → response. Identify what the evidence shows, explain the system behavior that produced it, state the likely effect on people or data, and choose a response that addresses the cause without creating unnecessary disruption.
A company encrypts its customer database but stores the decryption key in the same public folder as the backup.
- 1.Encryption strength depends on protecting the key.
- 2.Co-located public storage lets an attacker obtain ciphertext and key together.
- 3.Store keys in a separately controlled key-management system.
- 4.Test restoration and rotate keys under a documented process.
What does a tested offline backup most directly improve?
Which response best demonstrates complete reasoning about data protection across storage, transit, use, and recovery?
For a scenario about data protection across storage, transit, use, and recovery, identify the decisive evidence before naming a response. A defensible conclusion here is: Separate and restrict key management; encryption without protected keys does not meaningfully reduce disclosure risk.
Answer the 2 checkpoints as you read.
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