Comparing Cryptographic Key Sizes

[Jason William RENNIE]

On Tue, 24 Jun 1997, Adam Back wrote:

> (Bearing in mind the reader in most cases hasn't grasped the
> difference between public key crypto and symmetric key, and is
> comparing 1024 bit keys to 56 bit keys and probably thinks that it is
> 1024/56 times harder.)

Well i guess i'll look stupid for asking but someone has to but what is 
the diffrence ?? I dont know either, i'm on this list to learn things 
like this. I'm still very new to all of this. I was aware that they 
weren't 1024/56 times harder though.

jason =8-]