Definition: Data in transit (also referred to as ‘data in motion’) refers to any form of digital information that is being transmitted over a network or communication channel which could be within or outside the organization’s periphery. This can include data that is being sent between computers, servers, or other devices over a local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), or the internet.
Data in Transit explained
Data in transit is any data that is sent from one system to another, which could be a private business network or the Internet. This includes communication within the workload between the resources as well as communication between other services and end users.
Examples of data in transit include emails, instant messages, video calls, file transfers, and website requests. Data in transit is vulnerable to interception, tampering, or theft by attackers who are looking to steal sensitive information or disrupt communication.
How do you protect your data in transit?
To protect data in transit, various security methods can be implemented, including encryption, authentication, and secure communication protocols, to safeguard data while it is in transit.
The process of encryption (or cryptographic transformation of data) is converting data into an unreadable format that can only be deciphered with a decryption key. Authentication verifies the sender's and recipient's identities, and secure communication protocols ensure that data is transmitted over the network securely and safely.
The process of data in transit leads to data at rest which can occur in a number of ways. Once the data is transferred and arrives at the destination, it becomes data at rest and is held at that location until the recipient accesses it.
End-to-end encryption (E2EE)is a security mechanism that ensures that data is protected both in transit and at rest, encrypting it at the point of origin, only allowing decryption at the intended destination. This means that data is only exchanged in encrypted form and even if it is intercepted, it has no value to any third party including internet service providers (ISPs), telecommunications companies, and even the platform or application used to exchange the data.
Utimaco provides a range of data protection solutions that ensure the secure transfer, storage and sharing of critical and sensitive data.
