What is the primary purpose of encryption in data security?

The primary purpose of encryption in data security is to protect the confidentiality and integrity of data. Encryption transforms data into a secure format that is unreadable without the appropriate decryption key. This ensures that unauthorized individuals cannot access sensitive information, thereby maintaining confidentiality.

Furthermore, encryption also helps to preserve the integrity of the data by preventing unauthorized alterations. If data is encrypted, any attempts to modify it without proper authorization will render the data unreadable or inconsistent when decrypted, thus preserving its original state and authenticity.

Enhancing system performance, reducing file sizes, or increasing user accessibility are not the main objectives of encryption. While encryption may have an impact on system performance and might produce smaller encrypted data, these are secondary effects and not the fundamental purpose of encryption itself.