Cryptographic Software Libraries vs Custom Cryptography

Developers should learn and use cryptographic libraries when building applications that handle sensitive data, such as financial transactions, healthcare records, or user authentication, to comply with security standards and protect against cyber threats 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 Software Libraries

Nice Pick

Developers should learn and use cryptographic libraries when building applications that handle sensitive data, such as financial transactions, healthcare records, or user authentication, to comply with security standards and protect against cyber threats

Pros

• They are crucial for implementing secure communication (e
• Related to: public-key-infrastructure, secure-sockets-layer

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

The Bottom Line

Cryptographic Software Libraries wins

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