Which cipher replaces blocks of plaintext with ciphertext?

Study for the EC-Council Certified Security Specialist (ECSS) Test. Enhance your skills with flashcards and multiple-choice questions; each question provides hints and explanations. Prepare confidently for your exam!

Multiple Choice

Which cipher replaces blocks of plaintext with ciphertext?

Explanation:
Substitution ciphers replace plaintext units with ciphertext according to a fixed mapping. That matches the idea of taking a block of plaintext and substituting it for a corresponding ciphertext block. In contrast, transposition ciphers don’t replace symbols; they just rearrange the order of the same letters. The terms “ciphers” or “encryption” are too generic to specify the method: substitution is the one that describes actual replacement of blocks with new symbols.

Substitution ciphers replace plaintext units with ciphertext according to a fixed mapping. That matches the idea of taking a block of plaintext and substituting it for a corresponding ciphertext block. In contrast, transposition ciphers don’t replace symbols; they just rearrange the order of the same letters. The terms “ciphers” or “encryption” are too generic to specify the method: substitution is the one that describes actual replacement of blocks with new symbols.

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