An encryption scheme that uses the same key for both encryption and decryption. Fast to process.
A scheme that uses a single key for both encryption and decryption. It's fast, but securely sharing the key becomes the challenge. Because it's fast for both encryption and decryption once the key is safely in hand, real-world communication typically uses a hybrid approach: public-key cryptography exchanges the symmetric key securely, and the symmetric key then handles the bulk of the actual data.
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