Definition
RC4 (Rivest Cipher 4) is a symmetric stream cipher developed by Ron Rivest in 1987 to simplify software implementation. It was used in many cybersecurity applications because it favors encryption.
RC4 processes individual data streams to encrypt multiple pieces of information. While it was an efficient data encryption method back in the day, it has become obsolete with the advancement of technology.
Moreover, it was discovered to have many vulnerabilities in its key-scheduling algorithm.
RCA Use Cases
- Cryptographic protocols: RCA was applied in various cryptographic protocols as a stream cipher.
- File encryption: RC4 is also used for file encryption and to protect sensitive data.
- Wireless security: Many Wi-Fi encryption protocols, such as WPA and WEP, used RCA before the advent of Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption.
- Secure communications: Various secure communication applications and systems, such as secure messaging platforms and virtual private networks (VPNs), have used RCA in the past.
- SSL and TLS: The secure socket layer (SSL) and transport layer security (TLS) use RCA to encrypt data in web communications.