Analyzing the Security and Performance Trade-offs of Common Symmetric Encryption Algorithms in Communication Systems

Abstract

The primary benefit of symmetric key encryption is that it requires less computing power than asymmetric encryption. Additionally, as every symmetric encryption method has advantages and disadvantages, it is vital to assess how well popular symmetric encryption algorithms perform in order to determine their suitability for a range of efficiency scenarios and applications. The expansion of communication applications has made security a crucial concern for file storage and transfer. In computer networks, encryption, which is based on the science of cryptography, is necessary to safeguard data transmission. The two kinds of cryptography are symmetric and asymmetric encryption. Because of its resource-constrained characteristics, asymmetric encryption has the drawback of computational complexity, which renders it unsuitable for communication applications. Using the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), Data Encryption Standard (DES), and Blowfish, this study evaluated the security of plaintext files using three secret key cryptography techniques. The simulation application was developed using the Python programming language. Text files of 0.5 MB, 1 MB, 2 MB, 5 MB, 10 MB, and 20 MB were used to evaluate the avalanche effect, execution time, and throughput. The encryption algorithms employed 14 rounds, 16 rounds, and 16 rounds for AES, DES, and Blowfish, respectively. Conclusively, AES outperformed DEB and Blowfish in security performance, but Blowfish outperformed them in both time and throughput.