Data encryption and data masking are two actions that can be taken when transmitting data to mitigate the chance of a data leak occurring. Data encryption means transforming data into an unreadable format that can only be decrypted with a key. Data masking means hiding or replacing sensitive data with fictitious or anonymized data. Both methods protect the confidentiality and integrity of the data in transit. Reference: CompTIA Data+ Certification Exam Objectives, page 13

The first step the analyst should perform with the data is to conduct an exploratory analysis and use descriptive statistics. Exploratory analysis is a type of analysis that aims to summarize the main characteristics of the data, identify patterns, outliers, and relationships, and generate hypotheses for further investigation. Descriptive statistics are numerical measures that describe the central tendency, variability, and distribution of the data, such as mean, median, mode, standard deviation, range, quartiles, etc. Exploratory analysis and descriptive statistics can help the analyst gain a better understanding of the data and its quality, as well as prepare the data for further analysis.