Glossary ======== .. glossary:: plaintext User-readable data you care about. ciphertext The encoded data, it's not user readable. Potential attackers are able to see this. encryption The process of converting plaintext to ciphertext. decryption The process of converting ciphertext to plaintext. key Secret data is encoded with a function using this key. Sometimes multiple keys are used. These **must** be kept secret, if a key is exposed to an attacker, any data encrypted with it will be exposed. symmetric cryptography Cryptographic operations where encryption and decryption use the same key. asymmetric cryptography Cryptographic operations where encryption and decryption use different keys. There are seperate encryption and decryption keys.