ServiceNow Data Encryption Explained [+ Best Practices]

ServiceNow, an AI-powered platform, is helping businesses automate workflow from their internal to customer-facing operations. These critical business operations containing sensitive information make its security a top priority.

A single breach could lead to regulatory penalties, significant fines, and loss of customer trust.

The solution is implementing security in the right way on the ServiceNow AI Platform.

This guide provides you how to implement data encryption strategy in the ServiceNow platform, providing you with the confidence to protect your most sensitive data.

ServiceNow Platform’s shared responsibility model

ServiceNow operates on a shared responsibility model.

ServiceNow is responsible for managing the security of the platform infrastructure, and your responsibility is to secure the data and configurations within your platform instance.

ServiceNow responsibility: The infrastructure layer

ServiceNow’s mandate is the security of its platform, which includes:

• Infrastructure security: Protecting the network, servers, and software against attacks.
• Physical security: Protecting the data centers that host the platform.
• Platform availability: Ensuring the service is resilient and available, managing uptime, and patching the underlying software stack.
• Base-level encryption: Applying default, volume-level encryption to data at rest on their storage systems. This is a broad-brush security measure for the entire storage environment.

Your responsibility: The data and application layer

The organization using ServiceNow is responsible for the security of the platform. This is a more nuanced and active responsibility, encompassing:

Data classification: Identifying what data is sensitive [e.g., personally identifiable information (PII), protected health information (PHI), financial records] and categorizing it based on risk.

Access governance: Defining and enforcing policies on who can access what data and within which contexts. This includes managing user roles, permissions, and multi-factor authentication (MFA).

Application security: Securing custom-built applications, integrations, and workflows on the platform.

Advanced data protection: Implementing granular security controls, specifically Field-Level Encryption (FLE) or column-level encryption in ServiceNow and Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) management, which go far beyond the base-level encryption provided by ServiceNow.

Meeting the compliance mandates, such as GDPR, HIPAA, and SOX, requires you to uphold your responsibility for this model. Additionally, a robust data encryption strategy is not just an IT task; it is a fundamental security mandate and a core aspect of modern corporate governance.

Understanding data encryption stages

To build an effective data encryption strategy, it is important to understand the two stages of your data, as each requires specific security measures:

Data in Transit

Data in transit refers to data moving between a user’s browser and the ServiceNow platform or between ServiceNow and other integrated systems. It is protected by Transport Layer Security (TLS) for the entire database encryption, which creates a secure tunnel. This ensures that even if data is intercepted, the information remains unreadable to unauthorized parties. In short, ServiceNow managed this foundational security.

Data at Rest

This is data stored on disks within ServiceNow’s data centers. While ServiceNow provides foundational security for storage encryption, you have to make a strategic decision about additional, granular encryption for your sensitive information. This is where your strategic choices come into play, moving from baseline to advanced controls.

A tiered data encryption strategy for you

You must not think of data encryption in the ServiceNow AI platform as a single switch to turn on, but as a set of tiered controls.

Tier1: Standard security (ServiceNow managed encryption)

This is the base level security that ServiceNow provides to all customers. ServiceNow encrypts all data stored in its data center by default. It protects against unauthorized access and external threats to storage hardware, but users with the ServiceNow instance have access to the lobby.

Tier2: Strategic control (Platform and field-level encryption)

Field-level data encryption allows you to identify specific, highly sensitive fields, like social security numbers, credit card details, or proprietary source code, and put them in a virtual safe.

Even if someone gets unauthorized access to the ServiceNow instance, the sensitive data will remain encrypted. This is your most powerful tool for demonstrating due diligence to auditors for specific regulations like PCI-DSS or HIPAA. It is a direct response to the specific, high-impact risk.

Tier3: The master key vault you control (Bring your own key- BYOK)

For the highest level of control in ServiceNow, BYOK (bring your own key) is the statement of data sovereignty. You generate and hold the master encryption keys for your entire instance in your own cloud vault (like AWS KMS or Azure Key Vault).

This means organizations can control access to the data. They can revoke it at any time, independent of ServiceNow. For industries, like finance and healthcare, dealing with sensitive intellectual property (data), this is not just an option; it is a board-level expectation. It showcases regulators and partners that you have absolute control over your data.

Why is data encryption non-negotiable for the ServiceNow AI platform?

Unlike traditional systems that simply store information, ServiceNow AI actively processes data and learns from your data. This means sensitive data is actively used by AI models for tasks like powering search, generating recommendations, and predicting outcomes.

This creates a critical vulnerability whether your AI is learning from unprotected data, as it can expose the same sensitive data as well. It potentially can reveal personal identifiable information (PII) in its analytics or recommendations when trained on unencrypted employee data.

Platform and field-level encryption ensure that even if the AI is processing data, the underlying sensitive information remains secure. It is encrypted before the AI model ever accesses it for training or analysis, and remains encrypted in the results.

It is why a robust tiered encryption strategy is non-negotiable. By implementing this, you are not just protecting stored sensitive data; you are building a foundation of trust that allows your most innovative projects from AI-powered customer service portals to predictive financial analytics, to proceed with confidence, not compliance fears.

Best practices for data encryption in the ServiceNow AI platform

Based on our experience guiding organizations through the journey for data encryption in ServiceNow, success follows a disciplined, four-phase approach. This is not a one-time project; it’s an ongoing program of governance.

Discover & classify: You cannot protect what you do not know. This first phase is a business-led exercise to inventory and classify all data in your instance, including what is public, what is internal, what is restricted, and what would cause severe damage if exposed. So, this is the foundational step that defines your entire strategy.

Architect & design: With a clear data classification, you can now design the blueprint for data protection. Which data tiers require which level of encryption, and how do we balance security with system performance and user experience? This is the strategic planning phase that prevents costly missteps.

Implement & integrate: This is the careful execution of the data encryption plan, configuring FLE (Field-level encryption), establishing BYOK, and integrating these controls seamlessly into business processes. Your goal is maximum protection with minimal disruption for the users of the ServiceNow instance.

Manage & evolve: Your business is not static, and neither is your platform. New applications, new ServiceNow integrations, and new data are added constantly. This final phase is about continuous monitoring, policy enforcement, and adapting your encryption posture to meet evolving threats and business needs. So, this is where resilience is built.

Conclusion

Let’s be clear, a strategic approach to data encryption in your ServiceNow AI platform is not an IT cost. It is a business enabler. It is the key that allows you to:

• Innovate with confidence: Adopt AI and digital transformation initiatives without security fears.
• Speak with authority to auditors: Provide the proof of your controls for GDPR, HIPAA, and other regulations.
• Build trust with stakeholders: Show your board, customers, and shareholders that you are focused on the protection of sensitive information.

This is about transforming a potential vulnerability into a demonstrable strength. Get in touch with our ServiceNow consultants to discuss how we can help you implement a secure, compliant, and scalable encryption strategy.

Schedule a consultation call today!

AUTHOR

Shruti

ServiceNow, Sales Cloud

Shruti is a ServiceNow Consultant with 5+ years of experience across ServiceNow ITSM, AWS, Salesforce Loyalty Management, and managed services. She blends technical expertise with strategic insights to deliver transformative IT services and CRM solutions that enhance efficiency and customer satisfaction.