Compare symmetric key algorithms with public key algorithms. What are the benefits/drawbacks of each type of algo- rithm? How are these differences manifested in the real world uses of these two types of algorithms?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

In symmetric-key encryption, the same key is used to both encrypt and decrypt a message. Public-key cryptography
is an asymmetric encryption method. It uses two inversely-related keys to encrypt and decrypt a message.

The benefit of using symmetric-key cryptography is that it takes less computing time and power than public-key encryp-
tion and that new keys can be used for each communication session. However, symmetric-key cryptography creates key

management problems, as there are more keys that need to be kept secret, and key distribution problems, as distributing
keys securely so they are not compromised can be difficult. An additional drawback is that there is no way to authenticate
each party in the transaction, since both the sender and the receiver use the same secret key, .
The benefit of public-key cryptography is that each person only needs one key pair, with a private key that is kept secret
and a public key that is published. As a result, each person only needs to protect the privacy of one key—their private key.
Thus, there is less of a key management burden. Public-key cryptography (and the use of digital signatures) allows for
authentication of both parties in a transaction. The drawback of public-key cryptography is that it takes more computing
time and power to process than symmetric key cryptography. Therefore, public-key cryptography is often used to securely
exchange secret symmetric keys for a communication session.