Cryptographic Libraries vs Custom Cryptography

Developers should learn and use cryptographic libraries when building applications that handle sensitive data, such as financial transactions, personal information, or secure communications, to protect against threats like data breaches and unauthorized access meets developers should only consider custom cryptography in rare, highly specialized cases where no existing standard meets unique constraints, such as extreme performance needs in embedded systems or proprietary hardware with unusual architectures. Here's our take.

Cryptographic Libraries

Nice Pick

Developers should learn and use cryptographic libraries when building applications that handle sensitive data, such as financial transactions, personal information, or secure communications, to protect against threats like data breaches and unauthorized access

Pros

• They are essential in use cases like implementing HTTPS/TLS for web security, encrypting databases, creating secure authentication systems, and ensuring compliance with data protection regulations like GDPR or HIPAA
• Related to: public-key-infrastructure, tls-ssl

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

Custom Cryptography

Developers should only consider custom cryptography in rare, highly specialized cases where no existing standard meets unique constraints, such as extreme performance needs in embedded systems or proprietary hardware with unusual architectures

Pros

• It is primarily used in academic research, cryptographic competitions, or when developing novel cryptographic primitives for future standardization
• Related to: cryptography, security-engineering

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

The Verdict

These tools serve different purposes. Cryptographic Libraries is a library while Custom Cryptography is a concept. We picked Cryptographic Libraries based on overall popularity, but your choice depends on what you're building.

The Bottom Line

Cryptographic Libraries wins

Based on overall popularity. Cryptographic Libraries is more widely used, but Custom Cryptography excels in its own space.