Public-key cryptography

Abstract

The basic idea of public-key cryptography are public keys. Each person’s key is separated into two parts: a public key for encryption available to everyone and a secret key for decryption which is kept secret by the owner. In this chapter we introduce the concept of public-key cryptography. Then we discuss some of the most important examples of public-key cryptosystems, such as the RSA, ElGamal and Rabin cryptosystems. These all provide encryption and digital signatures.