Laymens explanation of difference between Asymetric & symetric crypto?

[GeneralDzur]

I'm trying to learn & understand the difference between Public Key encryption (RSA) & private-key encryption, such as AES or SSL. Is there a simple explanation?

- stephan

 

[sleipnir214]

Actually, if I understand it correctly, SSL uses symmetric encryption to bootstrap a connection to asymmetric encryption. But that's beside the point.

The difference between symmetric and asymmetric encryption is the number of keys used.

Symmetric encryption uses a single key for both encryption and decryption. Both parties must be aware of the key to transmit a message securely, which makes secure distribution of keys problematic.

Asymmetric encryption uses two mathematically-related keys, one for encryption and one for decryption. The "public" key can be used by anyone to encrypt a message, but only the holder of the "private" key can decypher the message.

See

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public-key_cryptography

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[GeneralDzur]

Hey, thanks sleipnir214 - that was really helpful, especially the Wikipedia link.

- stephan