(ISC)2 Certified in Cybersecurity Practice Exam

What is the process of converting plaintext to ciphertext called?

1. Decryption

2. Hashing

3. Encryption

4. Encoding

The correct answer is: Encryption

The process of converting plaintext to ciphertext is known as encryption. Encryption is a fundamental concept in cybersecurity and involves applying a mathematical algorithm to transform readable data into an unreadable format, making it secure against unauthorized access. This process typically uses a key, which is a piece of information that determines the transformation applied to the data. Unlike hashing, which produces a fixed-size output from variable-length input and is often used for data integrity rather than confidentiality, encryption ensures that only authorized parties with the corresponding decryption key can revert the ciphertext back to its original plaintext form. Similarly, while encoding may also convert data into a different format, it is primarily intended for data representation or storage and does not provide the same level of security as encryption. Decryption, on the other hand, is the reverse process of encryption, where ciphertext is converted back to readable plaintext. Therefore, encryption is the correct term for the transformation from plaintext to ciphertext.