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Understanding IDEA Encryption: A Comprehensive Guide
Everything You Need to Know About the International Data Encryption Algorithm | Karthikeyan Nagaraj
3 min readMar 5, 2023
Introduction:
- Encryption algorithms such as IDEA (International Data Encryption Algorithm) provide a secure method of protecting data.
- IDEA was initially developed as a proprietary cipher by Swiss cryptographers Xuejia Lai and James L. Massey in 1991.
- It was then standardized by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in 1992.
- In this article, we will take a closer look at IDEA encryption, its features, strengths, and weaknesses.
What is IDEA Encryption?
- IDEA encryption is a symmetric-key block cipher that operates on 64-bit blocks of data.
- It uses a 128-bit key and a series of complex mathematical operations to scramble plaintext into ciphertext.
- IDEA encryption uses a Feistel network, which divides the plaintext into two halves and then applies a series of rounds to each half, using a combination of XOR, modulo, and multiplication operations.
- This process creates a unique key for each block of data.
