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RSA
RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman) is an asymmetric encryption algorithm. With asymmetric encryption there are two keys used for encryption and decryption – a private key and a public key, that is why asymmetric encryption is also called ‘public-key cryptography’. With asymmetric encryption, the owner of the keys knows the public key and can divulge it to others. However, the owner does not know the contents of the private key - it is kept completely secret, and never revealed by the server.
Generally it is with the public key that messages are encrypted and with the private key that they are decrypted, but that is not always the rule. What is constant is that the two keys are co-relational, so that data encrypted with one key (be that the public or private key) can only be decrypted with the other.
At the root of any asymmetric encryption method is a ‘hard to solve’ mathematical problem from which a common number between two separate ends is arrived. Asymmetric encryption algorithms, like RSA, are thus computationally intensive and generally slower than symmetric encryption algorithms; therefore, they are commonly used as authentication techniques.
RSA differs from other popular asymmetric encryption methods in the type of mathematical problem used as well as providing for digital signatures (coded digests of the entire text using the user's private key).
Related terms:
Algorithm, Encryption, Key, MD5, PKI, Symmetric encryption
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