One-way functions - Mind the trap - Escape only for the initiated

Abstract

The authors present one-way functions, which play an important role in cryptography. A one-way function can be computed efficiently, but its inverse is very difficult to compute. Like most cryptographic algorithms these functions rely on findings from number theory. For example, two prime numbers of several hundred digits can be multiplied very quickly by a computer, however, given only the product of these numbers, it is extremely difficult to factorize the product into the two prime factors. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.