02 What is symmetric encryption?

Symmetric encryption method has only one key. This key is responsible for both encryption and decryption.

The oldest and probably most famous symmetric encryption is the Caesar encryption.

The following encryption methods are used

  • Transposition – changing the arrangement of letters
  • Substitution – replacing single (monographic) or several (bi-/polygraphic) letters by characters of one (monoalphabetic) or several (polyalphabetic) alphabets
  • Stream cipher – the text is encrypted character by character
  • Block cipher – the text is encrypted block by block

GCWizard knows the following symmetric encryption methods: