algorithm for public-key cryptography
AI overview
RSA is a mathematical method used to encrypt and decrypt secret messages by using two linked keys—one public that anyone can see, and one private that only you know. It matters because it's one of the most widely used ways to keep sensitive information like passwords, financial data, and private communications secure on the internet.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Article
The RSA (Rivest–Shamir–Adleman) cryptosystem is a family of public-key cryptosystems (one of the oldest), widely used for secure data transmission. The initialism "RSA" comes from the surnames of Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir and Leonard Adleman, who publicly described the algorithm in 1977. An equivalent system was developed secretly in 1973 at Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the British signals intelligence agency, by the English mathematician Clifford Cocks. That system was declassified in 1997.
RSA is used in digital signature such as RSASSA-PSS or RSA-FDH, public-key encryption of very short messages (almost always a single-use symmetric key in a hybrid cryptosystem) such as RSAES-OAEP, and public-key key encapsulation.