Encryption Algorithms Overview

The pfEncryptor application implements the .NET symmetric encryption classes.

Encryption Algorithm	Key Size	IV size	Security
AES (Advanced Encryption Standard)	16 bytes or 24 bytes or 32 bytes	16 bytes	most secure
TDES (Triple Data Encryption Standard)	16 bytes or 24 bytes	8 bytes	* less secure than AES * more secure than DES
DES (Data Encryption Standard)	8 bytes	8 bytes	Least secure

NOTE: An encryption key is a random string of bytes used to scramble and unscramble data.

NOTE: An initialization vector (IV) is an arbitrary number that is used along with a secret encryption key for data encryption.

The use of an IV prevents repetition in data encryption, making it more difficult for a hacker using a dictionary attack to find patterns and break a cipher. For example, a sequence might appear twice or more within the body of a message. If there are repeated sequences in encrypted data, an attacker could assume that the corresponding sequences in the message were also identical. The IV prevents the appearance of corresponding duplicate character sequences in the encrypted text.