From the course: CompTIA Security+ (SY0-601) Cert Prep: 3 Cryptography Design and Implementation
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RC4
- [Narrator] RC four is a symmetric stream cipher that was widely used to encrypt network communications. Invented in 1987 by the famous cryptographer Ron Rivest of RSA security, RC four was maintained as a proprietary trade secret algorithm until someone leaked it on the internet in 1994. Since the algorithm was not protected by a patent, it then became available in the public domain. As a strong and efficient stream cipher, RC four was widely used for many years in a variety of network based encryption schemes. On the wireless networking side, both the wired equivalent privacy, WEP protocol and the wifi protected access, WPA protocol, allowed the use of RC four. At the application layer, both the secure sockets layer and its replacement transport layer security, allowed the use of RC four as their underlying cryptographic algorithm. The RC four stream cipher works by creating a stream of bits to use as the encryption key.…
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