[Ashly Jackson]

A symmetric cipher is like a secret code that two people use to share information safely. Imagine you want to send a letter to a friend, but you don’t want anyone else to read it. You and your friend agree on a special way to change the letters in your message before you send it. This process is called encryption, which means turning your message into something that looks like gibberish to anyone else.

One popular symmetric cipher is called the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). With AES, both you and your friend use the same key, which is like a password, to unlock the message. To put it simply, when you write your message, you use the key to turn it into scrambled letters. Only someone with the same key can change it back into the original message.

The idea behind symmetric ciphers, like AES, is that the same key aids in both scrambling and unscrambling the information. Because of this, it’s vital that both parties keep the key secret and secure. If someone else finds out the key, they can read all your private messages. Thus, symmetric ciphers help to keep our online conversations and data confidential, making it a crucial part of cybersecurity.