Supported Algorithms for Software Encryption

The software encryption uses various algorithms with different key lengths. All algorithms meet the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Advanced Encryption standard.

RijnDael, by virtue of it being the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), would be considered the most secure encryption algorithm. However, AES was selected based on a series of requirements of which security level was just one. All candidates for AES met or exceeded the security requirement. Serpent and Twofish ciphers were also AES candidates. Twofish is faster and Serpent is considered more secure.

The following table lists the supported algorithms and their key lengths:

Cipher	Details	Block Size	Performance Rating*	Key Length Options
Blowfish	Symmetric Key Block Cipher Fast (fastest of the ciphers supported) Secure	64 bits	10	128, 256 bits
GOST	Symmetric Key Block Cipher	64 bits	8	256 bits
AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) or Rijndael	Symmetric Key Block Cipher Fast Secure Winner of the Advanced Encryption Standard Content Adopted as the Government Standard (Only cipher approved by the National Security Agency to be used for top secret information.) AES 256 - CBC mode. Advanced Encryption Standard instruction set (AES-NI) is used when the processor of the client computer supports this encryption method.	128 bits	7	128, 256 bits
Twofish	Symmetric Key Block Cipher Fast Secure Not standardized Finalist in the Advanced Encryption Standard Content	128 bits	5	128, 256 bits
Serpent	Symmetric Key Block Cipher Slow Very Secure (Considered more secure than AES) Finalist in the Advanced Encryption Standard Content	128 bits	4	128, 256 bits
3-DES (Triple Data Encryption Standard)	Symmetric Key Block Cipher Slow May be susceptible to certain attacks	64 bits	1.5	192 bits

* This performance rating is based on performance tests for the number of megabytes that is encrypted per second in a Windows environment with the software. The rating is on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the fastest. Results may vary depending on testing environment.