{"id":8418,"date":"2022-05-19T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-19T08:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.securitytoday.de\/2026\/04\/02\/post_id-5029\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T12:25:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T12:25:27","slug":"confidential-computing-why-data-must-remain-encrypted-even-during-processing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.securitytoday.de\/en\/2022\/05\/19\/confidential-computing-why-data-must-remain-encrypted-even-during-processing\/","title":{"rendered":"Confidential Computing: Why Data Must Remain Encrypted Even During Processing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Today\u2019s data is reliably encrypted  &#8211;  at rest and in transit. Yet during processing, it resides unencrypted in RAM. Confidential Computing closes this final gap using hardware-based enclaves. Intel SGX, AMD SEV, and ARM CCA have matured the concept for production use.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>TL;DR<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Confidential Computing protects data in RAM using hardware-enforced enclaves<\/li>\n<li>Market leaders: Intel SGX, AMD SEV-SNP, ARM Confidential Compute Architecture<\/li>\n<li>Google, Microsoft, and AWS offer Confidential VMs in the cloud<\/li>\n<li>Especially relevant for healthcare, financial services, and AI training<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>The Final Encryption Gap<\/h2>\n<p>Cryptography has solved two of three data states: <em>data at rest<\/em> (AES-256 on disk) and <em>data in transit<\/em> (TLS 1.3 over the network). But during processing, data must be decrypted and held in RAM  &#8211;  accessible to the operating system, hypervisor, and potentially to attackers with root-level access.<\/p>\n<p>Confidential Computing directly addresses this challenge: Using hardware-based Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs), it processes data inside protected enclaves  &#8211;  even the cloud provider cannot access them.<\/p>\n<h2>How Hardware Enclaves Work<\/h2>\n<p>Intel SGX (Software Guard Extensions) reserves encrypted memory regions directly within the CPU. The encryption key never leaves the processor. Even a compromised operating system cannot read data inside the enclave.<\/p>\n<p>AMD SEV-SNP goes further by encrypting an entire virtual machine\u2019s memory  &#8211;  making protection transparent to applications; no code refactoring required. ARM CCA brings the same principles to mobile and edge devices.<\/p>\n<h2>Cloud Offerings Compared<\/h2>\n<p>Azure Confidential Computing leverages both Intel SGX and AMD SEV-SNP for Confidential VMs and enclaves. Google Cloud offers Confidential VMs powered by AMD SEV. AWS provides Nitro Enclaves  &#8211;  a proprietary approach featuring isolated compute environments.<\/p>\n<p>For enterprises, this means Confidential Computing isn\u2019t futuristic speculation  &#8211;  it\u2019s available today. Technology choice depends on the use case: enclaves for maximum isolation, Confidential VMs for straightforward migration.<\/p>\n<h2>Use Cases: Where Confidential Computing Makes the Difference<\/h2>\n<p>In healthcare, the technology enables collaborative analysis of patient data across multiple clinics  &#8211;  without raw data ever leaving its secure environment. In financial services, fraud detection models can be trained on data from multiple banks  &#8211;  enabling privacy-preserving machine learning.<\/p>\n<p>Confidential Computing is also transformative for AI training on sensitive data: models can be trained on confidential datasets without granting the cloud provider access to the training data itself.<\/p>\n<h2>Key Facts<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Market size:<\/strong> USD 5.3 billion by 2028 (Everest Group)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Performance overhead:<\/strong> 2-8% for AMD SEV-SNP; 5-15% for Intel SGX<\/p>\n<p><strong>Adoption:<\/strong> Over 40 companies in the Confidential Computing Consortium (Linux Foundation)<\/p>\n<h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2>\n<p class=\"st-faq-hint\">Every question is locked. A tap unlocks the answer.<\/p>\n<details>\n<summary><strong>Is Confidential Computing the same as homomorphic encryption?<\/strong><\/summary>\n<p style=\"margin:8px 0 4px 24px;color:#555;line-height:1.6;\">No. Homomorphic encryption allows computations on encrypted data using purely mathematical operations  &#8211;  but it\u2019s extremely slow. Confidential Computing relies on hardware enclaves and delivers performance sufficient for production workloads.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n<details>\n<summary><strong>Do I need specialized hardware?<\/strong><\/summary>\n<p style=\"margin:8px 0 4px 24px;color:#555;line-height:1.6;\">Yes  &#8211;  if running on your own infrastructure. In the cloud, providers supply the hardware: Azure, GCP, and AWS all offer Confidential VMs that run on compatible processors.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n<details>\n<summary><strong>Does Confidential Computing protect against insider attacks?<\/strong><\/summary>\n<p style=\"margin:8px 0 4px 24px;color:#555;line-height:1.6;\">Yes  &#8211;  that\u2019s one of its core advantages. Even administrators with root access to the host cannot read data inside the enclave. This includes the cloud provider itself.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n<h2>Related Articles<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.securitytoday.de\/en\/2026\/02\/24\/post_id-3529\/\">Multi-Cloud Security 2026: The 5 Biggest Risks  &#8211;  and How to Solve Them<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.securitytoday.de\/en\/2026\/02\/12\/post_id-3813\/\">Post-Quantum Cryptography and Bitcoin: How Tomorrow\u2019s Security Architecture Is Taking Shape<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.securitytoday.de\/en\/2025\/08\/20\/post_id-3811\/\">Cryptography in Everyday Life: How Bitcoin Technology Is Inspiring the Security Industry<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"font-weight:700;color:#e6e3da;font-size:1.05em;margin:48px 0 16px;\">More from the MBF Media Network<\/p>\n<div style=\"display:flex;flex-direction:column;gap:14px;margin-bottom:40px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cloudmagazin.com\" class=\"st-net-card\" style=\"display:block;padding:16px 18px;background:#23261f;border:1px solid rgba(105,216,237,0.22);border-radius:10px;box-shadow:inset 0 1px 0 rgba(230,227,218,0.06),0 2px 10px rgba(0,0,0,0.22);text-decoration:none;color:#e6e3da;\"><span style=\"display:block;margin-bottom:6px;font-size:0.72em;font-weight:700;letter-spacing:0.06em;text-transform:uppercase;color:#0bb7fd;\">cloudmagazin<\/span><span style=\"display:block;color:#e6e3da;line-height:1.45;\">Cloud Magazin<\/span><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mybusinessfuture.com\" class=\"st-net-card\" style=\"display:block;padding:16px 18px;background:#23261f;border:1px solid rgba(105,216,237,0.22);border-radius:10px;box-shadow:inset 0 1px 0 rgba(230,227,218,0.06),0 2px 10px rgba(0,0,0,0.22);text-decoration:none;color:#e6e3da;\"><span style=\"display:block;margin-bottom:6px;font-size:0.72em;font-weight:700;letter-spacing:0.06em;text-transform:uppercase;color:#aa8ac2;\">MyBusinessFuture<\/span><span style=\"display:block;color:#e6e3da;line-height:1.45;\">MyBusinessFuture<\/span><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.digital-chiefs.de\" class=\"st-net-card\" style=\"display:block;padding:16px 18px;background:#23261f;border:1px solid rgba(105,216,237,0.22);border-radius:10px;box-shadow:inset 0 1px 0 rgba(230,227,218,0.06),0 2px 10px rgba(0,0,0,0.22);text-decoration:none;color:#e6e3da;\"><span style=\"display:block;margin-bottom:6px;font-size:0.72em;font-weight:700;letter-spacing:0.06em;text-transform:uppercase;color:#d65663;\">Digital Chiefs<\/span><span style=\"display:block;color:#e6e3da;line-height:1.45;\">Digital Chiefs<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Today\u2019s data is reliably encrypted &#8211; at rest and in transit. Yet during processing, it resides unencrypted in RAM. Confidential Computing closes this final gap using hardware-based enclaves. Intel SGX, AMD SEV, and ARM CCA have matured the concept for production use. TL;DR Confidential Computing protects data in RAM using hardware-enforced enclaves Market leaders: Intel [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":21853,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_yoast_wpseo_focuskw":"confidential computing","_yoast_wpseo_title":"Confidential Computing: Why Data Must Remain Encrypted Even During Processing","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Confidential computing keeps data encrypted during processing with hardware enclaves, ensuring full protection\u2014discover how to secure your data in use now.","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-adv":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-title":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-description":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-image":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-image-id":0,"_yoast_wpseo_twitter-title":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-description":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-image":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-image-id":0,"_evm_slot_owner":"","evm_cvss":0,"evm_risk":0,"evm_casefile":"","evm_primary_cve":"","evm_pin_until":0,"evm_external_preview_token":"","evm_external_preview_expires":"","_evm_translation_lang":"","featured_post":0,"featured_post_sortierung":0,"_wp_old_slug":["post_id-5029"],"footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[242],"class_list":["post-8418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sicherheitslexikon-en","tag-cloud-sicherheit"],"evm_reading_time_minutes":4,"wpml_language":"en","wpml_translation_of":5029,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.securitytoday.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.securitytoday.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.securitytoday.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.securitytoday.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.securitytoday.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8418"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.securitytoday.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19839,"href":"https:\/\/www.securitytoday.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8418\/revisions\/19839"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.securitytoday.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.securitytoday.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.securitytoday.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.securitytoday.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}