Data at Rest

Data at rest is an information technology term referring to inactive data that is stored physically in any digital form (e.g., databases, data warehouses, spreadsheets, archives, tapes, off-site backups, mobile devices, etc.).

Data at rest is a term that is sometimes used to refer to all data in computer storage while excluding data that is traversing a network or temporarily residing in computer memory to be read or updated. Businesses, government agencies, and other institutions are concerned about the ever-present threat posed by hackers to data at rest. In order to keep data at rest from being accessed, stolen, or altered by unauthorized people, security measures such as data encryption and hierarchical password protection are commonly used. For some types of data, specific security measures are mandated by law.