Meaning – In today’s world, keeping data secure is of paramount importance, and to achieve this, the most relevant technique is data encryption. Now, when the data is encrypted, using the various cryptographic techniques, the people responsible, also develop a data encryption key, that allows them to decrypt and even re-encrypt the data.
The speciality of this data encryption key, is that only the people with this key, can access the true contents of the encrypted data. The people who do not have the data encryption key, will only see a string of characters arranged in a meaningless sequence, and as such, will not be able to grasp the deal content hidden away.
Organisations usually reserve the assignment of the data encryption key, to employees who are selected by the management, to work on the data in question.
Example of usage – “The employee had to enter the data encryption key, in order to access the data that he was supposed to study for his assignment.”
