What is referred to as Cipher Text?

Cipher text refers to data or messages that have undergone the process of encryption, making them unreadable to anyone who does not have the means to decrypt them. The primary purpose of cipher text is to protect the confidentiality of information during storage and transmission. By converting plain text (which is readable) into cipher text, sensitive information is safeguarded against unauthorized access and potential breaches.

When data is encrypted, an algorithm takes the original data and transforms it into a format that appears random and nonsensical without the corresponding key or method for decryption. This is a fundamental concept in data security, especially in contexts like secure communications, financial transactions, and private data storage.

The other options do not accurately capture the essence of cipher text. Encoded data refers more broadly to any data that has been converted into a different format, which doesn’t necessarily imply encryption. Messages altered to ensure data integrity relate more to checksum or hash functions rather than the encryption associated with cipher text. Compressed data aims to reduce file size for efficiency but does not involve converting the data into a secure format. Thus, cipher text specifically denotes the result of the encryption process, ensuring confidentiality.