AES: advanced encryption standard, a symmetric 128-bit block data encryption technique
certification authority: (CA), a trusted organization or company that issues digital certificates used to create digital signatures and public-private key pairs
cipher text: data that has been encrypted
DES: data encryption standard, a popular symmetric-key encryption method that uses a 56-bit key and uses a block cipher method which breaks text into 64-bit blocks and then encrypts them
decryption: the process of decoding data that has been encrypted into a secret format
encryption: the translation of data into secret code
packet: a piece of message transmitted over a packet-switching network
plain text: refers to textual data in ASCII format. Plain text is the most portable format because it is supported by nearly every application on every machine
router: a device that forwards data packets along networks. A router is connected to at least two networks are located at gateways