Introduction   * Cryptography in various forms is one of the most standard and relatively reliable tools utilized in contemporary cyber security.   * Cryptographic protection of a system depends on two factors, 1) the strength of the keys and effectiveness of associated protocols, and 2) protection of said keys via key management (generation, storage, and distribution).   * Therefore, it is important to consider that strong algorithms combined with poor key management is just likely to fail as if there was strong key management with a poor algorithm.   * Three general classes of cryptographic algorithms approved by NIST – hash function, symmetric-key algorithm, and asymmetric-key algorithm (Turner, 2019).   * Each has its trade offs and depends on the security goal being accomplished. Symmetric Key Cryptography Strengths   * Algorithm transforms data to be virtually unlockable without a key.   * Designated standard by U.S. government, combined with 256-bit key length, impossible even for a supercomputer to guess the combinations.   * Offers benefit of data confidentiality by using the same key for encryption and decryption.   * Symmetric key encryption is fast and efficient for large data amounts (Shinder & Cross, 2008).   * Can be used in payment applications, such for card transaction, with the PII being protected to prevent identity theft. Symmetric Key Cryptography Weaknesses   * The key has to be shared with the party to whom the data is being relayed, making it vulnerable to intercept by malicious parties.   * Since symmetric key is universal, if a malicious party is able to have access to the key, they can decrypt everything from both sides.   * Every use of the key can leak some information which presents potential opportunity for an attacker to reconstruct it.   * The larger the system gets, the greater the need for a computerized key management system, for example key cards being released in the workplace (Smirnoff & Turner, 2019). Asymmetric Key Cryptography Strengths   * Also known as public key encryption, asymmetric encryption creates a key pair generated to be used together. A private key is never shared and only used by its owner, and the public key is available to everyone.   * Logically it is mathematically unfeasible to re-create the private key based on the public key.   * If they system is compromised, attackers will only have access to half the data or communications.   * No need for safety of key transmission as the public key cannot be used alone, only the private key associated with that public key can decrypt a received message (Shinder & Cross, 2008). Asymmetric Key Cryptography Weaknesses   * Technology used in encryption systems that require key exchange over public network, such as email security or web security.   * Asymmetric cryptography is generally slower than other methods due to the complex mathematical process of using two keys.   * No built-in authentication for public key, still allowing for identity theft or interception of messages.   * Computationally costly compared to counterparts as the keys must be much longer to have same level of security.   * Vulnerable to brute-force attacks (Blumenthal, n.d.). How Encryption is Used by Criminals   * Encryption offers