Data which is readable and understood with no special measures is called plain text or clear text... more Data which is readable and understood with no special measures is called plain text or clear text. The plain text is the message or data or any information in its original form which can be made available to any person in readable form. To keep any information or data confidential, it is to be disguised from plain text to the form which is unreadable and gibberish to any person except the one who is intended to receive it. Such method of disguising the plain text is called encryption which ensures the information to be kept hidden from anyone for whom it is not intended. For instance, when Julius Caesar sent messages to his generals, he didn't trust his messengers. So he replaced every A in his messages with a D, every B with an E, and so on through the alphabets. Only someone who knew the "shift by 3" rule could decipher his messages. And so the idea of keeping the information hidden or the idea of encryption of data arose. With that, the data encrypted has to be brought back to its original form. Thus, the method to revert the encrypted data into its original form is decryption. These processes require some techniques to be applied in order to fulfill the aim of data hiding and its security. This is where cryptography shows its existence.
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