Encryption
Incryptography, encryption is the process of transforminginformation(referred toasplaintext) using an algorithm (calledcipher) to make it unreadable to anyoneexcept those possessing special knowledge, usually referred to as akey. Theresult of the process is encryptedinformation (in cryptography, referred toasciphertext). In many contexts, the word encryption also implicitly refers to thereverse process,decryption (e.g. “software for encryption” can typically alsoperform decryption), to make the encrypted information readable again (i.e. tomake it unencrypted).