The first type of cipher is the block cipher which performs
encryption by dividing text messages into blocks of unchanged sizes and
uses a key to convert the message into ciphertext. A block cipher
manages to secure data during its transmission through this process. A
block cipher falls under symmetric encryption because the key that it
assigns for encryption is the same key needed to decrypt the ciphertext
once it reaches its destination. The blocks used in this algorithm have
specific sizes, say 128 or 64 bits (Crane, 2021). Situations in which it is
effective to use a block cipher for encryption are when users know the
size of the data they want to transfer since it will be possible to break the
data into blocks. In brief, a block cipher encrypts information in blocks,
making it applicable to instances where the data being sent has a fixed
size.
Another form of cipher similar to a block cipher is a stream cipher.
The similarity is that they are both symmetric algorithms and do not
require different keys for decryption. However, the functioning of a stream
cipher is different because it encrypts a message by dividing it into bits
