One of the key objectives of computer security is confidentiality - information is only AVAILABLE to those who are supposed to have access to it. Encryption helps protect confidentiality of information transmitted over a NETWORK by (if it works as intended) making it difficult or impossible for someone who is not AUTHORIZED to have the information to make sense of it if they intercept the information in transit. In cases of data STORED on a network, if it is stored in encrypted form, it can make it difficult or impossible for an attacker to get anything useful from the encrypted file.

One of the key objectives of computer security is confidentiality - information is only available to those who are supposed to have access to it. Encryption helps protect confidentiality of information transmitted over a network by (if it works as intended) making it difficult or impossible for someone who is not authorized to have the information to make sense of it if they intercept the information in transit. In cases of data stored on a network, if it is stored in encrypted form, it can make it difficult or impossible for an attacker to get anything useful from the encrypted file.