To change electronic information or signals into a secret code that cannot be understood or used on normal equipment. The information must undergo “decryption” in order to be used. Encryption for the sake of keeping information secret has been in use for many, many years (only in the last few decades has modern technology become an integral part of the process) and can take many forms ranging from scrambling letters of the alphabet to inverting sidebands of radio transmissions to very sophisticated algorithms that turn data into entirely unrecognizable forms that cannot be penetrated or “hacked.”