Understanding Platform Security – Part 2
Posted on 24 Nov 2021 · 1 min read
In this article, we continue exploring ServiceNow platform security. Have a look at Part 1 if you missed it.
Every organisation wants to ensure that their data is inaccessible to unauthorised users — even if unauthorised users somehow gain access to data, they won't be able to read it. That is where encryption becomes very important.
ServiceNow provides the capabilities to encrypt data in transit and data at rest.
Data in Transit
We can think about data in transit as data moving from one point to another — through the internet or your network. Because data is moving, we need to make sure it's protected from tampering or interception.
Data transferred between a browser and a ServiceNow instance is transferred over HTTPS using TLS with AES-128 or AES-256.
What is AES-128?
In brief, AES is symmetric encryption, meaning it uses the same key to encrypt and decrypt. Symmetric encryption encrypts large amounts of data very quickly. AES-128 uses a 128-bit key, while AES-256 uses a 256-bit key for even stronger protection.
Data at Rest
Data at rest refers to data that stays in one place and is not actively moving — for example, data stored in a database or on disk.
ServiceNow provides the following encryption layers for data at rest:
- Symmetric AES-256 encryption for the database layer
- AES-128 / AES-256 encryption for column-level encryption, allowing you to selectively encrypt specific sensitive fields
- Full disk encryption, where the encryption is part of the hardware controller itself
These multiple layers ensure that even if one layer is compromised, your data remains protected.
Read Part 1 for antivirus scanning and email security.