ciphertext

thumb|right|250px|The Zimmermann Telegram (as it was sent from Washington to Mexico in 1917) encrypted as ciphertext. thumb|KGB ciphertext found in a Hollow Nickel Case|hollow nickel in Brooklyn in 1953

In cryptography, ciphertext or cyphertext is the result of encryption performed on plaintext using an algorithm, called a cipher. Ciphertext is also known as encrypted or encoded information because it contains a form of the original plaintext that is unreadable by a human or computer without the proper cipher to decrypt it. This process prevents the loss of sensitive information via hacking. Decryption, the inverse of encryption, is the process of turning ciphertext into readable plaintext. Ciphertext is not to be confused with codetext, because the latter is a result of a code, not a cipher.