data in transit

{{Short description|Data that is currently traveling across a network}}

{{Merge to|Data communication|discuss=Talk:Data communication#Proposed merge of Data in transit into Data communication|date=March 2025}}

Data in transit, also referred to as data in motion{{Cite web |url=https://cloudsecurityalliance.org/guidance/csaguide.v3.0.pdf |title=Data in motion and data in transit both used on cloudsecurityalliance.org |access-date=2016-04-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160415105252/https://cloudsecurityalliance.org/guidance/csaguide.v3.0.pdf |archive-date=2016-04-15 |url-status=dead }} and data in flight,{{Cite web|url=https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2010/1/55738-data-in-flight/fulltext|title = Data in Flight | January 2010 | Communications of the ACM| date=January 2010 }} is data en route between source and destination, typically on a computer network.

Data in transit can be separated into two categories: information that flows over the public or untrusted network such as the Internet and data that flows in the confines of a private network such as a corporate or enterprise local area network (LAN).[http://www.sans.org/reading-room/analysts-program/encryption-Nov07 SANS White Paper on Encryption]

Data in transit is used as a complement to the terms data in use, and data at rest which together define the three states of digital data.{{Cite web |title=Data Protection: Data In transit vs. Data At Rest |url=https://www.digitalguardian.com/blog/data-protection-data-in-transit-vs-data-at-rest |access-date=2023-04-12 |website=Digital Guardian |language=en}}