# India DPDP Act 2023 SE-001 — Encryption & Data Masking

- Source: https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/india-dpdp-act-2023/se-001-encryption-data-masking
- Section: [Compliance](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance) › [Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (India)](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/india-dpdp-act-2023) › Security (SE)
- Last updated: 2026-06-05
- Publisher: iCompaas, Inc. (https://www.icompaas.com)

**India DPDP Act 2023**·Control `SE-001`·critical·Component: **Security**

## What this control requires

> Encrypt all personal data at rest and in transit using industry-standard algorithms (AES-256 for rest, TLS 1.2+ for transit). Apply data masking or tokenisation for personal data in non-production environments and display contexts. Objective: Prevent unauthorised access to personal data through encryption, reducing breach impact and demonstrating reasonable security safeguards under Rule 6(1).
> 
> — India DPDP Act 2023, Control SE-001

### In plain English

Encrypt all personal data at rest and in transit using industry-standard algorithms (AES-256 for rest, TLS 1.2+ for transit). In practice, this means you can prove you encrypt encryption-level controls on a defined cadence.

## Why it matters

Penalties under the DPDP Act reach ₹250 crore per instance of significant non-compliance, and the Act applies extra-territorially to any entity processing personal data of individuals in India in connection with offering goods or services.

This control is rated **critical** in the source catalogue. Treat gaps here as production incidents in the risk register, not housekeeping.

## What an auditor looks for

Indian DPAs and statutory auditors will look for: documented consent capture and revocation flows, a designated Data Protection Officer (for Significant Data Fiduciaries), breach-notification workflows tied to Data Protection Board notification timelines, and Records of Processing that match the consent notice the user saw.

Within **Security**, the assessor will trace your implementation back to the catalogue reference (Control SE-001) and look for objective evidence on the latest two assessment cycles.

## How to implement

1.  Write a short policy stating intent, scope and named owner.
2.  Encode it as a platform guardrail — SCP, Azure Policy initiative, Organisation Policy, or repository policy.
3.  Wire a monitoring signal that catches drift (CSPM rule, SIEM rule, scheduled query, Workspace alert) and ticket it.
4.  Review on a documented cadence and capture the review in the risk register or compliance tracker.

### Operational checklist

-   **Encrypt.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
-   **Scope:** encryption, data masking.

## Evidence to collect

-   **Infra Scan.** Continuous infrastructure-posture telemetry — AWS Config, Azure Policy compliance, GCP Organisation Policy, Wiz / Prisma findings.
-   **Policy Document.** A signed and version-controlled policy / standard / procedure document.

Signed policies, procedures, and registers document the safeguard. Infrastructure posture tooling (AWS/Azure/GCP configuration, encryption, backup, logging) verifies technical enforcement. Focus: Encryption & Data Masking.

## How it maps to other frameworks

Computed from shared tags, control component and key-operation subjects — handy when you are reconciling controls across an audit.

-   [**ISO/IEC 27701:2025 A.3.26** — Use of cryptography](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27701-2025/a-3-26-use-of-cryptography)

## References

-   [Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (India) — India DPDP Act 2023](https://www.meity.gov.in/content/digital-personal-data-protection-act-2023)
-   Catalogue identifier: `Control SE-001`

Topics: data protectionencryption at restencryption in transitkey management

## Related compliance guidance

- [India's DPDP Act 2023: a practical compliance guide for cloud teams](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/india-dpdp-act-2023): Start with the full DPDP Act implementation guide — scope, roadmap, evidence and how the assessment runs.
- [GDPR compliance: a practical implementation guide for cloud-native SaaS teams](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/gdpr): Most teams extend an existing GDPR programme to India; this guide shows where the lawful bases, timelines and breach rules differ.
- [ISO/IEC 27001:2022 compliance: a practical implementation guide](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27001-2022): Rule 6's reasonable security safeguards map almost one-to-one onto ISO 27001 Annex A controls you may already operate.