When discussing the security of data, it’s important to understand the difference between encryption and hashing. Encryption involves transforming data into a different format that can later be reverted back to its original form with the correct decryption key. This ensures that data can be both securely stored and accessed by authorized parties when needed.

Hashing, on the other hand, is a one-way process that generates a fixed-size string of characters, which is typically a representation of the original data. A hash is designed to be irreversible, meaning that once data is hashed, it cannot be converted back to its original form.

Therefore, while both encryption and hashing are used to protect data, they serve different purposes. Encrypted data is meant to be securely locked from unauthorized access while still being retrievable. Data ‘secured’ with a hash is not encrypted in the traditional sense because it cannot be decrypted back to the original data. Hashing is typically used for verifying data integrity and secure password storage, not for data encryption. Thus, data that is only hashed is not considered encrypted.