What provides the best defense against sniffing by ensuring data confidentiality?

What provides the best defense against sniffing by ensuring data confidentiality?

• A. Firewalls
• B. Antivirus software
• C. Intrusion Detection Systems
• D. Encryption Protocols

Answer: (D)

Protecting data from sniffing is about ensuring confidentiality through encryption. When data is encrypted in transit, anyone who captures the network traffic only sees ciphertext, not readable content, and cannot extract the original information without the decryption key. Encryption protocols—such as TLS for web traffic, IPsec for network-layer protection, or SSH for secure remote access—provide this protection by transforming plaintext into unreadable data during transmission. Firewalls, antivirus software, and intrusion detection systems each play valuable roles in security, but they do not by themselves guarantee confidentiality of intercepted data. Firewalls block unauthorized connections, antivirus stops malware, and IDS detects suspicious activity; none directly prevents someone from reading intercepted data without encryption. Hence, encryption protocols offer the best defense against sniffing.

Protecting data from sniffing is about ensuring confidentiality through encryption. When data is encrypted in transit, anyone who captures the network traffic only sees ciphertext, not readable content, and cannot extract the original information without the decryption key. Encryption protocols—such as TLS for web traffic, IPsec for network-layer protection, or SSH for secure remote access—provide this protection by transforming plaintext into unreadable data during transmission. Firewalls, antivirus software, and intrusion detection systems each play valuable roles in security, but they do not by themselves guarantee confidentiality of intercepted data. Firewalls block unauthorized connections, antivirus stops malware, and IDS detects suspicious activity; none directly prevents someone from reading intercepted data without encryption. Hence, encryption protocols offer the best defense against sniffing.