# Data encryption
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/data-encryption/6118
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [December 10, 2011, 3:48pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/data-encryption/6118 "2011-12-10T15:48:32Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Slava\_G](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Slava_G)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2011, 3:48pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/data-encryption/6118/1 "2011-12-10T15:48:32Z")
Hi,
Is there any option to store index data encrypted ?
Best Regards.
---
### Author:  [@kimchy](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/kimchy)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2011, 4:28pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/data-encryption/6118/2 "2011-12-10T16:28:52Z")
No...
On Sat, Dec 10, 2011 at 5:48 PM, slavag [slavago@gmail.com](mailto:slavago@gmail.com) wrote:
> Hi,
> Is there any option to store index data encrypted ?
>
> Best Regards.
---
### Author:  [@Slava\_G](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Slava_G)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2011, 4:38pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/data-encryption/6118/3 "2011-12-10T16:38:35Z")
No - never, or not now and planed for the future ?
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### Author:  [@Nick\_Hoffman](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Nick_Hoffman)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2011, 5:13pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/data-encryption/6118/4 "2011-12-10T17:13:37Z")
I would think that it's not planned. If the indexes are encrypted, how
would you search them? You'd have to decrypt all of the fields that are
being searched, store that in memory, execute the search query, then delete
the unencrypted data from memory. That doesn't make any sense.
What problem are you trying to solve?
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### Author:  [@Slava\_G](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Slava_G)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2011, 5:31pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/data-encryption/6118/5 "2011-12-10T17:31:28Z")
The problem is that sensitive data (even index data) is being stored as
plain text and could be leaked.
For this (but not only) I'm not storing \_source field.
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### Author:  [@Michael\_Sick](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Michael_Sick)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2011, 6:06pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/data-encryption/6118/6 "2011-12-10T18:06:38Z")
Nothing stopping you from encrypting at the file system level. Likely there
will be a perf hit but I'm guessing ES will be fine.
On Sat, Dec 10, 2011 at 12:31 PM, slavag [slavago@gmail.com](mailto:slavago@gmail.com) wrote:
> The problem is that sensitive data (even index data) is being stored as
> plain text and could be leaked.
> For this (but not only) I'm not storing \_source field.
---
### Author:  [@Slava\_G](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Slava_G)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2011, 6:12pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/data-encryption/6118/7 "2011-12-10T18:12:44Z")
Yes, this could be an option.
Thank You.
---
### Author:  [@kimchy](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/kimchy)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2011, 7:01pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/data-encryption/6118/8 "2011-12-10T19:01:40Z")
Yea, file system level encryption is definitely an option. There is an
option to encrypt the index files themselves and decrypt (block wise) when
searching, though it will come at a performance hit and requires
implemented it.
On Sat, Dec 10, 2011 at 8:12 PM, slavag [slavago@gmail.com](mailto:slavago@gmail.com) wrote:
> Yes, this could be an option.
> Thank You.
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2017, 3:45am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/data-encryption/6118/9 "2017-07-06T03:45:46Z")