What does "encryption" do for data security?

Encryption is a crucial mechanism in data security that transforms data into a coded format that is unreadable to anyone who does not have the appropriate decryption key or password. This process protects sensitive information from unauthorized access, ensuring that even if the data is intercepted or accessed without permission, it remains secure and confidential.

By using algorithms to scramble the original information, encryption effectively secures data during transmission and storage, making it significantly more difficult for malicious actors to exploit. This is particularly important in protecting personal information, financial data, and any other sensitive data that could be at risk.

The other options describe different functions that do not relate directly to data security through encryption. Organizing data, creating backups, and compressing data serve different purposes that do not involve transforming data into an unreadable format for security purposes. Thus, understanding encryption as a method of securing data is vital for ensuring privacy and compliance in data management practices.