Sabrina Polin: Asymmetric cryptography keys are long, really
long.
Asymmetric cryptography protects sensitive or classified
data from falling into the wrong hands. Also known as public
key cryptography, asymmetric cryptography is a method of
encrypting data intended for only specific recipients, With
it, both the sender and recipient have their own public and
private keys, which are large random numbers that are paired
together with mathematical algorithms. The private key is
kept secret, while the public key can be shared with
everyone. If a public key is used to encrypt a message, the
corresponding private key decrypts it, and vice versa.
Asymmetric cryptography also works with digital signatures.
Here a sender encrypts a message with their own private key,
and anyone with access to the sender's public key can verify
the message. Asymmetric cryptography keys are thousands of
bits long. The longer the key, the less likely it is for a
hacker to crack the pairing algorithm, and the more secure
it is. Symmetric cryptography, on the other hand, uses the
same exact keys, or symmetric keys, to lock and unlock
messages. It's faster and provides a higher level of
security with a smaller key. For context, a 128 bit
symmetric key provides roughly the same security as a 2048
bit asymmetric key. Asymmetric cryptography does have a
security advantage in that the private keys are never shared
or transmitted. This method also serves as proof of receipt,
allowing recipients to verify the sender of an encrypted
message preventing any denials.
