Maria receives a ciphertext message from her colleague Wen. What type of function does Maria need to use to read the plaintext message?

Homework Help: Questions and Answers: Maria receives a ciphertext message from her colleague Wen. What type of function does Maria need to use to read the plaintext message?

A. Hashing
B. Decryption
C. Validation
D. Encryption

Answer:

First, let’s understand what Ciphertext is:

Ciphertext refers to data that has been encrypted and is unreadable without decryption. In this case, Maria received a ciphertext message, meaning the message has already been encrypted.

Given Options: Step by Step Answering

a) Hashing

• Hashing is a one-way function that converts data into a fixed-length hash value. Hashing is not used for converting ciphertext back into plaintext.

b) Decryption

• Decryption is the process of converting encrypted ciphertext back into readable plaintext. This is what Maria needs to do.

c) Validation

• Validation is used to check the integrity or correctness of data, not to convert ciphertext into plaintext.

d) Encryption

• Encryption is the process of converting plaintext into ciphertext, which has already been done.

Final Answer:

Based on the above analysis, the correct answer is:

B. Decryption

Since Maria has received the encrypted (ciphertext) message and wants to read the plaintext message, she needs to reverse the encryption process. The process of converting ciphertext back to its original form (plaintext) is called decryption.

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