Skip to main content
Information Security

You are not logged in. Your edit will be placed in a queue until it is peer reviewed.

We welcome edits that make the post easier to understand and more valuable for readers. Because community members review edits, please try to make the post substantially better than how you found it, for example, by fixing grammar or adding additional resources and hyperlinks.

Required fields*

5
  • 1
    There is no way to directly compare them. I would point out the only thing we can say is secure is one time truly random pad based XOR stream cipher (which is symmetric), however key exchange is a major problem. We can also say that we can, in theory, break RSA and El Gammel (the two main asymmetric) algorithms) with quantum computing, we just haven't built the device to actually do it.. Commented Sep 16, 2011 at 23:39
  • 2
    For the same key size typically the asymmetric encryption (especially RSA) is less secure. Of course in practice you offset this by using larger keys. Commented Sep 17, 2011 at 7:54
  • 4
    More secure is generally a unmeasurable quantity. Resistance of message M to attack X by threat Y is much more meaningful. Commented Sep 18, 2011 at 4:15
  • 2
    ECRYPT does a periodic assessment of the relative strengths of a variety of algorithms, including both symmetric and asymmetric encryption. The 2012 report is here Commented Apr 4, 2014 at 3:30
  • I can't find a report more recent than 2012 – does ECRYPT no longer produce it? Commented Apr 28, 2016 at 5:20