Cryptography Reference
In-Depth Information
9.7 Lessons Learned
Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) is based on the discrete logarithm problem.
It requires arithmetic modulo a prime or in a Galois field
GF
(2
m
).
ECC can be used for key exchange, for digital signatures and for encryption.
ECC provides the same level of security as RSA or discrete logarithm sys-
tems over
Z
p
with considerably shorter operands (approximately 160-256 bit
vs. 1024-3072 bit), which results in shorter ciphertexts and signatures.
In many cases ECC has performance advantages over other public-key algo-
rithms. However, signature verification with short RSA keys is still considerably
faster than ECC.
ECC is slowly gaining popularity in applications, compared to other public-key
schemes, i.e., many new applications, especially on embedded platforms, make
use of elliptic curve cryptography.
