How do data in process differ from data at rest or data in transit?

Data in process refers to information that is actively being manipulated or processed by a computer system, typically residing in a device's RAM or CPU. This differs from data at rest, which is stored on physical devices like hard drives or external storage, and data in transit, which refers to data that is actively moving across a network.

When data is in process, it is in a volatile state, meaning that it exists temporarily in memory (RAM) while a program or application is using it. This state is crucial for applications that require real-time handling of information, such as a video game rendering graphics or a software application performing calculations.

Additionally, because data in process is stored in RAM, it is generally more susceptible to attacks that exploit memory vulnerabilities, like buffer overflows or malware that operates within a device's memory, making it distinct from static data at rest or data in transit, which have different security considerations.

Understanding this distinction is important for cybersecurity practices, as it informs how security measures should be deployed across different states of data.