A company encrypts sensitive customer data using a key pair before storing it in a cloud database. Which type of encryption should be used?

Hashing is a one-way cryptographic function that transforms input data into a fixed-size string of characters, which is unique to the input data. However, it does not allow for encryption and subsequent decryption, making it unsuitable for scenarios where data needs to be securely stored and later retrieved in its original form.

A Virtual Private Network (VPN) provides a secure tunnel for transmitting data over the internet by encrypting the connection between devices. While it enhances security during data transmission, it does not directly encrypt the data itself for storage, which is necessary for protecting sensitive customer information in a database.

Internet Protocol Security (IPSec) is a framework used to secure Internet Protocol (IP) communications by authenticating and encrypting each IP packet. Similar to VPNs, IPSec focuses on securing data in transit rather than encrypting data at rest, which is required for securely storing sensitive customer data in a cloud database.