Q: What advantage does asymmetric encryption have over symmetric encryption?
or
Q: What benefits do symmetric and asymmetric encryption have over one another?
- They have very fast performance.
- They allow secure communication over untrusted channels.
- They’re more secure.
- They’re easier to implement.
Explanation: The ability to distribute keys is an important benefit of asymmetric encryption, which also has other advantages. With symmetric encryption, you have to securely share the same key between the communicating parties. It would be foolish to do something as dangerous as giving around a single key to a private club.
Asymmetric encryption, on the other hand, requires two keys: a public key and a private key. These keys are kept separate from one another. You are allowed to share the public key with anybody in the world, but you must remember to keep the private key to yourself at all times. Because of this, you won’t need to be concerned about safely disseminating the key, since the fact that only the owner of the private key may decode communications encrypted with the associated public key frees you from this responsibility. It’s kind of like putting a magic lock on your message, where anybody can put a padlock on it, but only you have the key to release it.
