RSA 1024 ridiculous

[Andrew Berg]

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Sven Radde wrote:
> The actual "bulk" data processing is done by a symmetric algorithm
> / hash function. You only encrypt the key to the symmetric
> algorithm / sign the hash value. Both are typically 256bit or
> smaller.
>
> In fact, the larger the data you want to process, the *smaller* the
>  impact of a larger key is. (If it takes minutes to hash a few
> gigabytes, it doesn't matter if signing the hash takes 10, 100 or
> 1000 milliseconds.)
I think I understand after doing a little research as suggested. Only
the hash is signed, and only the key (for the symmetric encryption) is
encrypted with the public key, and the message itself is encrypted
symmetrically. The recipient unlocks the symmetric key with the
private key that corresponds to the public key with which it was
encrypted and can then decrypt the message. Large file sizes aren't an
issue because the files (or messages) are encrypted symmetrically,
which is much more efficient than encrypting them directly
asymmetrically. Right?

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