The difference is rather simple. (Although I have a feeling that tpatcek will tell me I am wrong on some count) Asymmetric encryption has two parts, a private

The difference is rather simple. (Although I have a feeling that tpatcek will tell me I am wrong on some count) Asymmetric encryption has two parts, a private key and a public key. One encrypts data with a public key and then the only key that can decrypt it is the private key. The private key, as the name suggests, has to stay private and is a secret, whereas your public key you can hand out as you please. In symmetric encryption you have a single key, it is used to both encrypt and decrypt the data, and thus if that single key were to fall into the wrong hands that person could then decrypt the data, whereas with a public key that is not the case. This is a very simplified overview of the differences.