Secret key Algorithms in Cryptography
Cryptography is both the practice and the study of hiding information. In the old times, when comes to cryptography, it was all about encryption. that means methods for changing data from its ordinary, conceivable structure into a boundless state, making it inaccessible without the key. Data encryption methodologies were mostly used when there is critical information to share, such as in spy services, military services, etc.. The most famous example for the data encryption is the Enigma story in World War 2.
Symmetric Encryption
Symmetric encryption algorithm uses one single key to encrypt and decrypt the information. It is also known as the Secret key algorithm. in this technique sender and the receiver has a pre-shared secret key. usually, that key contains 80 to 256 bits. The data encryption mechanism in symmetric encryption is really fast because this algorithm is based on simple mathematical operations. DES, 3DES, AES are good examples for symmetric encryption algorithms.
DES
DES refers to data encryption standard. It is developed by IBM and it is the most famous symmetric encryption standard. DES converts blocks of 64-bits of clear text into ciphertext. It generates a 56bits key. In DES there are two modes of encryption: ECB (Electronic code book) mode and CBC (Cipher Blockchaining) mode.
In ECB each clear test block is independently encrypted into ciphertext. Which results, similar plain texts will generate a similar ciphertext using the same key. So it is vulnerable to known-plaintext attacks.
When it comes to CBC, the encryption of each block depends on previous blocks. when encrypting a plaintext, it uses the previous block ciphertext to generate the next block ciphertext. So, it is much more secure compared to the ECB mode. Blockchain technology is the best example for ECB mode.
AES
This encryption algorithm is developed based on the Rijndael algorithm which uses key length up to 256 bits. In addition, it is faster, more efficient and also suitable for high-throughput low latency environments but its very young algorithm comparing to DES.
RC
RC algorithms are widely used in networking applications because of its speed and variable key length capabilities. RC has many types like RC2, RC4, RC5, and RC6. RC4 is a stream cipher while all others are block ciphers which have different kinds of key lengths.
