Starting with release 2.94, the SAS High-Performance Analytics environment supports
reading and writing files using AES
encryption with 256-bit keys. (This feature is very similar to the AES encryption provided by
the SAS BASE Engine.) SASHDAT encryption is designed to bolster privacy protection
for data at rest—that is, data stored in SASHDAT for analytic purposes.
Remember that SASHDAT
data is typically not the system of record, but rather a copy of operational
data that has been arranged for the purposes of analytics. In addition
to encrypting data, many SAS users also anonymize their data when
preparing it for analytics.