Improve utils performance

**Feature request**
It would be great to have encryption for validation.

**Use case**
Many users need this functionality for production deployments.

**Implementation idea**
Add a new config option `enable_encryption` with default `false`.

No file, test, or entry point is identified. First locate the configuration and validation paths, then clarify what data must be encrypted and how `enable_encryption` should affect production behavior; done should include a default-disabled option and tests covering both settings.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.