Chapter 8. Encryption

8.1. About Encryption

Encryption refers to obfuscating sensitive information by applying mathematical algorithms to it. Encryption is one of the foundations of securing your infrastructure from data breaches, system outages, and other risks.
Encryption can be applied to simple string data, such as passwords. It can also be applied to data communication streams. The HTTPS protocol, for instance, encrypts all data before transferring it from one party to another. If you connect from one server to another using the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol, all of your communication is sent in an encrypted tunnel .