Rivest Cipher 4 (RC4)

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Rivest Cipher 4 (RC4) is a symmetric encryption cipher designed to support wireless encryption, applications in which its efficient, small implementation and speed made it an ideal solution.

• developed by Ron Rivest of RSA in 1987
  • initially protected as a trade secret
  • in 1994, was leaked anonymously to Cipherpunks mailing list
• important element of WEP and WPA
• used in SSL and TLS until 2015
• vulnerable to many attacks
• not recommended for use