title: Encryption using SHA1
body: <p>I am developing a large application and i need encryption when a data is traveling between two machines in different continents. I have never worked on encryption. I want a simple encryption which can be handled in PHP / Ruby / Python without any dependencies. </p>
  
  <p>So i decided to use HMAC SHA1. </p>
  
  <pre><code>$pad=hash_hmac("sha1","The quick brown....","mykey");
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>This is what i found out after some research on the internet.</p>
  
  <p>How hard it is to decrypt it if someone doesn't know the key? Also, any alternatives to this?</p>
  
  <p>UPDATE - thanks for all the responses. Problem solved.</p>