Encryption transforms data into ________.

Encryption is the process by which a cryptographic algorithm, combined with a key, converts plaintext — data in its original, readable form — into an unrecognizable, scrambled form called cipher text. Only a party holding the correct decryption key can reverse this transformation and recover the original plaintext.

Applying this to the question: the defining output of the encryption process is cipher text, so encryption transforms data into cipher text.

• Plain text is the input encryption starts from, not what encryption produces — it is the readable data before the transformation is applied.

• Metadata describes properties of a file or message, such as its size or timestamp; encryption does not produce metadata, and metadata exists independently of whether the payload is encrypted.

• Hash values come from hashing, a separate one-way cryptographic operation that produces a fixed-length digest for integrity checking; unlike encryption, hashing cannot be reversed to recover the original data, so it is a different function from encryption.