Which of the following would Matt, a security administrator, use to encrypt transmissions from an
internal database to an internal server, keeping in mind that the encryption process must add as little
latency to the process as possible?

A.
ECC

B.
RSA

C.
SHA

D.
3DES

Explanation:
3DES would be less secure compared to ECC, but 3DES would require less computational power.
Triple-DES (3DES) is a technological upgrade of DES. 3DES is still used, even though AES is the preferred
choice for government applications. 3DES is considerably harder to break than many other systems, and
it’s more secure than DES. It increases the key length to 168 bits (using three 56-bit DES keys).
Incorrect Answers:
A: Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) provides similar functionality to RSA but uses smaller key sizes to
obtain the same level of security. ECC
encryption systems are based on the idea of using points on a curve combined with a point at infinity and
the difficulty of solving discrete logarithm problems.
B: The RSA algorithm is an early public-key encryption system that uses large integers as the basis for the
process. RSA encryption and decryption would require more computation compared to 3DES.
C: SHA is not an encryption algorithm. The Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA) was designed to ensure the
integrity of a message.

Dulaney, Emmett and Chuck Eastton, CompTIA Security+ Study Guide, 6th Edition, Sybex, Indianapolis,
2014, pp. 250, 251, 253, 255, 255-256