Abstract: A first aspect of the invention includes a method of securing messages using multiple cryptographic algorithms that distributes the burden of computing a session key using a strong cryptographic algorithm while using the session key with a faster cryptographic algorithm to protect messages long enough to compute a new session key. Some embodiments can be improved by use of a non-repeating seed, slotted storage of session keys, or both. A second aspect of the invention is generally directed to an augmented multi-stage hash function, which can be used as the faster cryptographic algorithm.