What is the process of coding a message to conceal its meaning called?

The process of coding a message to conceal its meaning is known as encryption. This technique transforms readable data (plaintext) into an unreadable format (ciphertext) using a specific algorithm and an encryption key. The primary purpose of encryption is to protect the confidentiality of the information, making it accessible only to those who have the appropriate decryption key to decode the message back to its original form.

Encryption is widely used in various applications, such as secure communications over the internet, data protection in storage, and safeguarding sensitive information in transit. By effectively obscuring the content, encryption ensures that even if a malicious actor intercepts the data, they cannot understand its meaning without the correct decryption mechanisms.

In contrast, the other terms represent different processes related to data security and management. Decryption refers to the reverse process of turning ciphertext back into plaintext, while compression reduces the size of data for efficient storage or transfer without necessarily concealing its meaning. Hashing, on the other hand, converts data into a fixed-size string of characters, which is usually a digest, and is primarily used for data integrity verification, not for concealment.