Which example best illustrates the principle of confidentiality?

Which example best illustrates the principle of confidentiality?

• A. Hashing
• B. Encryption
• C. Redundancy
• D. Audit logs

Answer: (B)

Protecting information so that only authorized people can read it is what confidentiality is about. Encryption achieves this by turning readable data into ciphertext using an algorithm and a key; without the correct key, the data appears as random noise, so even if it’s accessed, the content remains unreadable. This protection applies whether data is stored or sent over a network. Hashing, on the other hand, creates a fixed digest to verify integrity and authenticity but isn’t reversible, so it doesn’t provide a way to recover the original content and thus doesn’t deliver confidentiality. Redundancy focuses on availability and fault tolerance, not secrecy, and audit logs track actions for accountability but don’t by themselves prevent data disclosure. So encryption best demonstrates confidentiality.

Protecting information so that only authorized people can read it is what confidentiality is about. Encryption achieves this by turning readable data into ciphertext using an algorithm and a key; without the correct key, the data appears as random noise, so even if it’s accessed, the content remains unreadable. This protection applies whether data is stored or sent over a network. Hashing, on the other hand, creates a fixed digest to verify integrity and authenticity but isn’t reversible, so it doesn’t provide a way to recover the original content and thus doesn’t deliver confidentiality. Redundancy focuses on availability and fault tolerance, not secrecy, and audit logs track actions for accountability but don’t by themselves prevent data disclosure. So encryption best demonstrates confidentiality.