<div class="markdown-heading"><h2 class="heading-element">Types of encryption</h2><a id="user-content-types-of-encryption" class="anchor" aria-label="Permalink: Types of encryption" href="#types-of-encryption"></a></div>
✔️ Symmetric encryption :
<ul>
<li>the same key is used for encryption and decryption</li>
<li>fast processing of large quantity of data</li>
<li>small key length (128 - 256 bits)</li>
<li>algorithms : 3DES, AES, DES, RC4</li>
</ul>
✔️ Asymmetric encryption :
<ul>
<li>a public key is used for encryption, a private key is used for decryption</li>
<li>slow processing of small quantity of data</li>
<li>large key length (1024 - 4096 bits)</li>
<li>algorithms : Diffie-Hellman, ECC, ElGamal, DSA, RSA</li>
</ul>
✔️ General encryption paradigm or how are key pairs generated :
<ul>
<li>A key pair generation process involves very large prime numbers and modular arithmetic.</li>
<li>When very large prime numbers are multiplied together, their product is essentially impossible to factor without knowing what the original numbers were.</li>
<li>It’s not magic, it just happens to be the way the maths work with prime numbers.</li>
<li>In order to crack the encryption, one would have to be able to factor the product of those large prime numbers, which current computing power does not allow.
</li>
</ul>