An administrator of a secure web server has several clients with top security clearance and prefers security over performance. By default, which of the following cipher suites would provide strong…

The correct answer is A. 3DES - SHA. Triple DES (3DES) applies the DES cipher three times to each data block, providing strong 168-bit effective security. However, this triple-pass operation is computationally expensive, making it significantly slower than modern ciphers - especially for high-throughput…

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Question

An administrator of a secure web server has several clients with top security clearance and prefers security over performance. By default, which of the following cipher suites would provide strong security, but at the same time the worst performance?

Options

A3DES - SHA
BDES - MD5
CCamellia - SHA
DRC4 - MD5

How the community answered

(28 responses)

A
93% (26)
C
4% (1)
D
4% (1)

Explanation

Triple DES (3DES) applies the DES cipher three times to each data block, providing strong 168-bit effective security. However, this triple-pass operation is computationally expensive, making it significantly slower than modern ciphers - especially for high-throughput environments. SHA is a strong hash function but does not add further performance penalty beyond integrity checks. DES-MD5 (B) is fast but cryptographically weak. RC4-MD5 (D) is a stream cipher optimized for speed, not security. Camellia-SHA (C) is a modern block cipher that balances security and performance. For a CISO prioritizing security over performance, 3DES-SHA delivers the strongest (if older) security at the worst performance cost.

Topics

#cipher suites#3DES#symmetric encryption#cryptographic performance

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