A very basic introduction to encryption

A short and simple primer on an important security measure

Simply put, encryption is a method for transforming data from one format into another. The way encryption does this makes it a common security measure across different computer systems.

Encryption involves three main elements:

1. The plaintext

2. A cipher

3. A key

4. An algorithm

5. The cipher text

Encryption takes plaintext (i.e., the data to be encrypted), and applies an a…