Asymmetric or symmetric security key Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Asymmetric or symmetric security key - Case Study Example In this scenario, both the sender and receiver decide for the shared key before sending/receiving the data and then they can start encrypting and decrypting data between them by making use of that key. Some of the well known examples of symmetric key encryption comprise TripleDES (Data Encryption Standard) and AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) (Stretch, 2010; Ezeobika, 2010). Fig1 demonstrates the process of Symmetric key encryption: In addition, DES, 3DES, AES, and RC4 are some of the well known examples of symmetric encryption algorithm. In this scenario, 3DES and AES are widely utilized in IPsec and other types of VPNs (Stretch, 2010; KetuWare, 2004). Asymmetric encryption is also referred as public-key cryptography. As compared to the symmetric encryption method in asymmetric encryption two keys are used: one for encryption and another for decryption. Basically, this encryption technique uses two keys for the data encryption: a public key and a private key. In this scenario, the public key is made available for all so it can be used to encrypt data and information by anyone who wants to send a message to the person who has the key. However, the private key is not disclosed to anyone and is employed to decrypt received data. Most commonly seen example of asymmetric key encryption is RSA (Stretch, 2010; Ezeobika, 2010). Fig2 demonstrates the process of Symmetric key encryption: Excellent Support for Message Authentication: In view of the fact that the asymmetric encryption technique supports the digital signatures which allows the data receiver/sender to authenticate that the data is actually received from a specific sender. Integrity of data: As discussed above, the use of digital signatures also ensures the integrity of data. In addition, this technique allows the receiver to become aware of if the data was modified during transmission because a digitally signed data cannot be altered without invalidating the