Which term best describes data that is stored or transmitted in a readable, unprotected format?

• A. Data Masking
• B. Unencrypted Data (Cleartext/Plaintext)
• C. Tokenization
• D. Alert

Answer: (B)

Keeping data confidential relies on encryption. When data is stored or sent in a readable, unprotected format, it is in plaintext. This directly describes unencrypted data (also known as cleartext or plaintext). Because encryption would convert readable information into ciphertext that looks meaningless without the key, the presence of readable data means no encryption is being applied. That’s why plaintext is vulnerable to interception and exposure.

Data masking hides parts of data to limit what is visible, especially in user interfaces. Tokenization replaces sensitive data with non-sensitive placeholders for processing but can still allow mapping back to the original data under controlled conditions. An alert is simply a notification and isn’t about the data’s protection state.

So the term that fits best is unencrypted data (cleartext/plaintext).