TestOut LabSim A+ Certification Practice Exam

Which encryption standard is commonly used to secure sensitive data transmitted over the Internet?

1. SHA-1

2. RSA

3. AES

4. Blowfish

The correct answer is: AES

AES, or Advanced Encryption Standard, is widely regarded as the standard for securing sensitive data transmitted over the Internet due to its efficiency, security, and versatility. It was established as a replacement for the older DES (Data Encryption Standard) and has undergone extensive scrutiny by cryptography experts, making it a robust choice for encrypting data. AES supports varying key lengths of 128, 192, and 256 bits, allowing organizations to choose a level of security that best fits their needs while balancing performance. Its ability to encrypt data in blocks of 128 bits also contributes to its efficiency for large-scale applications, such as VPNs, email encryption, and secure file storage. SHA-1 is a hashing algorithm rather than an encryption standard, making it unsuitable for this context because it is designed to create a fixed-size hash value from input data rather than encrypting it. RSA is an asymmetric encryption algorithm used primarily for secure key exchange and digital signatures, rather than encrypting data directly during transmission. Blowfish is a symmetric encryption algorithm that is not as widely used today compared to AES and can be less efficient, especially for large data sets or modern applications, where AES has become the preferred choice.