Symmetric Algorithms

Ramdayal said: For exam, just know what the symmetric algorithms are. They won’t specify things like “which is 128-bits, etc"

Data Encryption Standard (DES)

64-bit block cipher

Triple-DES (3DES)

Applies the DES algorithm 3 times to each data block

Internal Data Encryption Algorithm (IDEA)

64-bit block cipher

Blowfish

Larger keys than IDEA

Rivest Cipher 4 (RC4)

Widely used by WEP and older implementations of SSL and TLS

Rivest Cipher 5 (RC5)

Not widely adopted

Rivest Cipher 6 (RC6)

Developed as next version of RC5

CAST

Symmetric algorithm that uses a Feistel network

Two fish

Developed to replace Blowfish

Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)

Specification for the encryption of electronic data established by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

Basics of symmetric key algorithms (other than knowing that all of these are symmetric key algorithms)

2 points

• Don’t use DES or 3DES

• Should use AES