MODERN CRYPTOGRAPHY ALGORITHMS.

Abstract

This study explores the landscape of modern cryptographic algorithms, emphasizing their core principles, performance metrics, practical applications, and potential limitations. The analysis focuses on four prominent algorithms—AES, ChaCha20, RSA, and ECC—representing both symmetric and asymmetric encryption paradigms. Through a combination of literature review and empirical benchmarking using industry-standard tools (OpenSSL, libsodium), we evaluate encryption speed, memory consumption, CPU load, key size, and resistance to known cryptanalytic attacks. The findings indicate that while AES and ChaCha20 remain efficient choices for symmetric encryption, ECC presents a modern alternative to RSA for asymmetric use cases. Additionally, the discussion outlines future challenges posed by quantum computing, motivating the shift toward post-quantum cryptography.