When a message is sent using cryptography, it is changed (or "encrypted") before it is sent. The method of changing text is called a "code" or, more precisely, a "cipher". The changed text is called "ciphertext". The change makes the message hard to read. Someone who wants to read it must change it back (or "decrypt" it). How to change it back is a secret. Both the person that sends the message and the one that gets it should know the secret way to change it, but other people should not be able to. Studying the cyphertext to discover the secret is called "cryptanalysis" or "cracking" or sometimes "code breaking".