Eleventh Hour Security+

Encryption Algorithms

A number of encryption algorithms are available for use, and more are created over time—this list is by no means complete, but represents some of the more important algorithms at the time of writing—and covers the requirement for the CompTIA Security+ Objectives.

DES

Standing for Data Encryption Standard, this is another of those generic names that indicates it comes out of NIST. The DES algorithm uses a 56-bit key, and as expected from something with such a small key size, it is a symmetric key encryption algorithm—asymmetric keys are usually more than a thousand bits in length. It is also a “block” encryption algorithm, meaning that it encrypts in blocks—in DES's case, a block is 64 bits—one block at a time. While block ...