What is the difference between symmetric and asymmetric encryption?

Most efficient for the transfer of small data. Symmetric encryption can take 128 or 256-bit key sizes. Asymmetric takes more key sizes of RSA 2048-bit or more. Symmetric encryption is considered less secure because it uses a single key for encryption. Asymmetric encryption remains safer because it uses two keys in encryption and decryption.

How long is a symmetric encryption key?

In most cases, the typical length of a symmetric encryption key is either 128 or 256 bits. Since only a single key is used, it doesn't require lots of resources to encrypt the information either. All parties must share the encryption key to allow for data transfer, exposing symmetric encryption to key exhaustion problems.

Why is symmetric cryptography faster?

Symmetric cryptography is faster to run (in terms of both encryption and decryption) because the keys used are much shorter than they are in asymmetric cryptography. Additionally, the fact that only one key gets used (versus two for asymmetric cryptography) also makes the entire process faster.

Do you need a secret key for asymmetric encryption?

In sending encrypted data from the public key scheme, the receiver needs a secret key to access the encrypted data. With asymmetric encryption, there is no worry about what a malicious individual can do to your encrypted data as long as you have the secret key for the decryption.