Plaintext
What is Plaintext?
Unencrypted data or information that has not been transformed by a cryptographic algorithm. Plaintext is readable by anyone who has access to it and must be protected through encryption when confidentiality is required.
Frameworks that govern plaintext
What the standards actually require on plaintext
Requirements naming plaintext across 4 standards, quoted from the control text.
RBI AA Framework imposes strict IT and data protection controls reflecting the elevated trust and sensitivity of consolidating financial information.
RBI-AA-IT-DataProtection-Transience-NoStorage-E2EE-DataLocalisation-IS-PolicyFramework · RBI AA IT + Data Protection - Data Transience + No Storage at AA + End-to-End Encryption + Data Localisation in India + Information Security Policy + RBI IT Framework for NBFC-AA →Provide secrets to containers at runtime through a managed secrets system rather than environment variables or mounted files in plaintext. Rotate secrets on schedule and revoke them when a workload is decommissioned.
SP800-190-3.20 · Secrets Management at Runtime →The decryption environment where account data is converted from ciphertext to plaintext must be logically isolated, hardened, and protected by strong access controls compliant with PCI DSS.
Domain-4.1 · Decryption Environment Logical Security →Manufacturers should ensure credentials, cryptographic keys and other security parameters are stored securely on the device and not in plaintext.
PSTI-11 · Secure Storage of Credentials and Sensitive Data →Questions people ask about plaintext
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Our platform maps 686 frameworks with 311K cross-framework control mappings. Explore how this concept is addressed across standards.