Compare Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) with RSA. Why is ECC becoming the preferred standard for mobile and IoT devices?
Python interview question for Advanced practice.
Answer
RSA relies on the difficulty of factoring large primes, requiring massive keys (2048+ bits) for security. ECC relies on the discrete logarithm problem over elliptic curves, offering the same security with much smaller keys. ECC is preferred for IoT/Mobile because: 1. Performance: Smaller keys mean faster computations and less battery drain. 2. Bandwidth: Smaller certificates reduce data transmitted during handshakes, speeding up connections on slow networks.
Explanation
A 256-bit ECC key offers comparable security to a 3072-bit RSA key.