Cryptographic Algorithms

There are many cryptographic algorithms(Ciphers) that are used to secure information.
These can be divided into following categories:

Symmetric Ciphers : Uses same key for encryption and decryption.

>>>>Stream ciphers : RC4

>>>>Block ciphers : AES, DES, DESede, SEED

Asymmetric Ciphers : Uses different key for encryption and decryption.RSA,DSA

RC4
RC4 is a stream symmetric cipher. operations are performed by XORing plain text bits with key bits.
AES
AES stands for Advance Encryption Standard. It was accepted as a NIST standard. AES has a fixed block size of 128 bits.
AES is a block symmetric cipher. It divides the plain text into blocks (128 bytes). AES Keys can be of 128,192 or 256 bits long.
DES
DES is a block symmetric cipher. DES keys are 56 bits long.
DESede
DESede is also a block symmetric cipher derived from DES.
RSA
RSA is an asymmetric cipher.
choose your plaintext be at least one byte shorter than the RSA modulus, and before RSA encryption, pad or encrypt the message content.
See http://forums.devshed.com/security-and-cryptography-17/plaintext-max-size-calculation-for-rsa-610111.html


DSA
DSA is asymmetric cipher.