This document covers five pages of definitions and explanations of the elements of public key cryptograpy. "Everything you wanted to know about Public Key Infrastructure, but were too insecure to ask. Secret Key Encryption In secret key encryption, the same key . . .
This document covers five pages of definitions and explanations of the elements of public key cryptograpy. "Everything you wanted to know about Public Key Infrastructure, but were too insecure to ask. Secret Key Encryption In secret key encryption, the same key is used to encrypt and decrypt. Inherent in secret key encryption is the problem of secure key distribution. For example, if you want to send me an encrypted message, you have to securely send me the secret key first. This creates a chicken-and-egg dilemma: To set up a secure communication system, you need a secure communication system.

Public key encryption solves this problem using key pairs. Each pair consists of one public and one private key. Data encrypted with one key in the pair is decrypted using the other key. Thus, if you want to send me an encrypted message, you can encrypt it with my public key -- which, as its name implies, is not a secret. Decryption requires my private key, which only I possess."

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