Categories Of Symmetric Key Encyption

• There are two categories of symmetric key encryption.
  • Block algorithms.
    • Operates on fixed-length groups of bits, termed blocks, with an unvarying transformation.
    • It consists of two paired algorithms, one for encryption and another for decryption.
    • Data Encryption Standard (DES), Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), and IDEA all are block algorithms.
  • Stream algorithms.
    • Data is encrypted one character, or byte, at a time.

• A stream cipher is sometimes called a state cipher because the encryption of each digit is dependent on the current state.

How does public key encyption work?

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© 2006 John Michael Pierobon

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