Explore the differences between symmetric vs. asymmetric encryption, including how they work and common algorithms, as well as their pros and cons.

Cryptography is the art of encrypting and decrypting data. Encryption is the process of encoding unencrypted data, or plaintext, into encrypted data, or ciphertext, to disguise the data and make it unreadable. Decryption is the method of decoding encrypted data into readable information.

Encryption algorithms, or ciphers, involve the use of a variable -- known as a key -- which makes the data unreadable. Only the person or entity with the proper decryption key is able to read the data.

The two widely used types of ciphers are symmetric and asymmetric.