Fundamentals
Fundamentals
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    Symmetric Encryption

    A cryptographic algorithm to Encrypt data using a key, where the data can be Decrypted using the same key. The most commonly used algorithm is AES256.

    Symmetric Encryption is strong and requires little computing resources. The downside of Symmetric Encryption is that both the sender and receiver must have the same key, which implies that the key must be exchanged, which is a Security Risk.

    Another downside of Symmetric Encryption is that one could theoretically calculate the Symmetric Encryption Key1 if one has enough data and enough compute. (For AES256 it is not yet possible to have enough data and compute).

    1. This is what makes cracking WEP WiFi Networks possible. See https://www.wikihow.com/Break-WEP-Encryption. ↩︎