Glossary

Learn about data security, encryption, hashing and encoding in our knowledge base.

File encryption

File encryption is a process that is used to protect the confidentiality of data stored in a file. It involves using an encryption algorithm and a secret key to transform the data in the file into a form that is unreadable without the appropriate key.

File encryption is often used to protect sensitive data, such as financial records, personal documents, and confidential business documents. It can also be used to protect data that is transmitted over a network, such as when sending an email or transferring a file via a file-sharing service.

To decrypt a file that has been encrypted using file encryption, the appropriate key must be used to transform the ciphertext (encrypted data) back into plaintext (unencrypted data). This can be done using specialized software tools or by using built-in encryption and decryption functions in an operating system or application.