Symmetric vs Asymmetric encryption

Symmetric Encryption

Symmetric encryption is a traditional way of encrypting (also called Private Key Encryption), where the encryption and decryption keys are the same. This method is faster and easier to implement than asymmetric encryption, since the sender and the receiver use the same key to transmit and receive information. In addition, the key sizes are smaller in symmetric encryption compared to asymmetric algorithms. However, the private exchanging of the key between the sender and receiver is challenging. Both parties have to agree and trust on a communication medium such as a phone system to exchange the key. Examples of some common Private Key Encryption algorithms are:

IDEA (International Data Encryption Algorithm)

FEAL (Fast Data Encipherment Algorithm)

DES (Data Encryption Standard)

Triple DES

AES

RC4

Asymmetric Encryption

Asymmetric encryption is a method where the encryption and decryption keys are different. These systems are also called Public Key Encryption Systems, since the encryption key does not have to be a secret. The sender can publish the encryption key and anyone can encrypt messages going to the specific user. However, only the receiver can decrypt the message, since the decryption key cannot be generated with the knowledge of the encryption key. This method is slower and requires more computational power than symmetric encryption. Examples of some common Public Key Encryption algorithms are:

RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adelman)

Diffie-Hellman