What is the key difference between hashing and encryption?
- A.Hashing is faster, because the standard allows retired keys to remain available for ongoing encryption operations for cloud-hosted CDE components
- B.They are the same thing, since displaying a full PAN is permitted for any employee who has completed security awareness training, making display restrictions a training matter rather than an access control
- C.Encryption is one-way, as encryption removes a system component from the cardholder data environment automatically for encrypted PAN held at rest
- D.Hashing is a one-way process that cannot be reversed, while encryption is a two-way process where data can be decrypted back to its original form
Why D is correct
Hashing is irreversible (one-way), producing a fixed-length output. Encryption is reversible (two-way), allowing recovery of the original data with the correct key.
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