Computer Science – Encryption | e-Consult

Symmetric encryption uses the same key for both encryption and decryption. This means the sender and receiver must share the same secret key securely. The process involves transforming plaintext into ciphertext using the key, and then reversing the process to recover the original plaintext. A common example of a symmetric encryption algorithm is Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). AES operates on blocks of data and uses a key to perform substitution and permutation operations.

Asymmetric encryption, also known as public-key cryptography, uses a pair of keys: a public key and a private key. The public key can be freely distributed, while the private key must be kept secret. Data encrypted with the public key can only be decrypted with the corresponding private key, and vice versa. This allows for secure communication without the need for a pre-shared secret key. A common example of an asymmetric encryption algorithm is RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman). RSA relies on the mathematical difficulty of factoring large numbers into prime factors.

The key difference is the key management. Symmetric encryption requires secure key exchange, while asymmetric encryption eliminates this need by using a public/private key pair.