Using data encryption, a plaintext message can be scrambled so that it appears like random gibberish and is very difficult to transform back to the original message without a secret key. This message can consist of ASCII text, a database file, or any data you want to store or transmit securely. In this document, the term message is used to refer to any piece of data, plaintext is used to refer to data that has not been encrypted, and ciphertext refers to data that has.