I want to encrypt a small piece of data that is less that 16 bytes in size (think SSN), and I'll be using a 256bit encryption key.  The typical suggestion is to never use ECB, but if there is just a single block being encrypted, is it a concern?

The reason I want to use ECB is because I want the encrypted value of the block to be consistent between encryptions for other reasons (so I can check if a value already exists by just comparing the uniqueness of the cipherText).

Updated: Also note that these encrypted values will be stored in a set, so there will not be data leakage by having multiple encrypted values of the same plainText available.


Question: Should FPS exceed ticks/second?
Answer: It depends on your design.

If you have interpolation/extrapolation in your render layer, then any extra frames will add to the smoothness on animation. For example particle effects don't affect games logic and can use much higher framerates. Your GUI might work at higher framerates to respond to player interaction faster.

If there's indeed no change between frames (no interpolation/extrapolation/GUI), then skipping the extra frames is beneficial, since that extra frame might overlap with next ticks frame, delaying it.