Re: Encrypt a file

[Samuli Suonpaa <samuli.suonpaa@kapria.com>]

Damian Menscher <menscher@uiuc.edu> writes:
> On Mon, 9 Oct 2000, Brian May wrote:
>> While there are pros and cons in both methods, I have to wonder
>> what you need to encrypt files for. For most applications,
>> asymmetric encryption is better.
> No, for most applications, symmetric encryption is better.  It is
> stronger, faster, more standardized, better tested, etc.  The
> asymmetric methods often use asymmetric encryption only to encrypt a
> key for a symmetric algorithm.

Umm... As you state, most applications asymmetric only for the key and
symmetric for data. How come you still consider symmetric encryption
to be faster?

> That said, you might still consider using pgp, as I believe it has
> the ability to do symmetric encryption.  

As does gpg. And, of course, I would use free software whenever
possible.

Suonpää...