What is a difference between symmetric and asymmetric encryption algorithms?
- Symmetric encryption algorithms are used to authenticate secure communications. Asymmetric encryption algorithms are used to repudiate messages.
- Symmetric encryption algorithms are used to encrypt data. Asymmetric encryption algorithms are used to decrypt data.
- Symmetric encryption algorithms use pre-shared keys. Asymmetric encryption algorithms use different keys to encrypt and decrypt data.
- Symmetric algorithms are typically hundreds to thousands of times slower than asymmetric algorithms.
Explanation: Asymmetric algorithms can use very long key lengths in order to avoid being hacked. This results in the use of significantly increased resources and time compared to symmetric algorithms.
Asymmetric algorithms can use very long key lengths of up to 4096 bits for data encryption. The longer keys are commonly used for encrypting bulk data. This results in the use of significantly increased resources and time, compared to symmetric algorithms which only use 256 bits for data encryption.
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