What best describes Hybrid Encryption?

• A. A cryptographic implementation that uses both symmetric and asymmetric algorithms.
• B. An encryption method that uses only symmetric keys.
• C. An approach that relies solely on public-key cryptography.
• D. A hashing technique used for data integrity.

Answer: (A)

Hybrid encryption blends the speed of symmetric cryptography with the secure key exchange of asymmetric cryptography. The data is encrypted with a fast symmetric cipher, and the symmetric key is encrypted with the recipient’s public key. The recipient then uses their private key to decrypt the symmetric key and finally uses that key to decrypt the data. This approach delivers efficient encryption for large messages while ensuring only the intended recipient can access the content. Using only symmetric keys would require a secure channel to share the key, which is impractical, while relying solely on public-key cryptography for all data would be slow for large payloads. Hashing, on the other hand, provides integrity checks, not confidentiality.