What is the purpose of AWS S3 bucket encryption?

The purpose of AWS S3 bucket encryption is to protect data at rest. When data is stored in Amazon S3, it may be sensitive or contain personally identifiable information. By enabling encryption, you ensure that the data is stored securely and cannot be accessed in its raw form without the proper decryption keys. This helps meet compliance requirements and protects against unauthorized access.

Encryption at rest means that the data is encrypted when it is stored in S3 and remains encrypted until it is accessed or downloaded by a user or application with the appropriate permissions. This protects the confidentiality and integrity of your data, safeguarding it from potential threats.

Choosing this approach also aligns with best practices for data protection, ensuring that organizations have strong data security measures in place. While read/write speed, access management, and storage costs are important considerations in cloud storage, they are not the primary goals of implementing encryption in S3. The focus of encryption is specifically on safeguarding the data being stored.