rsa encryption

1 definition found

rsa encryption - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  RSA encryption
  
     <cryptography, algorithm> A public-key cryptosystem for both
     encryption and authentication, invented in 1977 by Ron
     Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Leonard Adleman.  Its name comes from
     their initials.
  
     The RSA algorithm works as follows.  Take two large prime numbers
     , p and q, and find their product n = pq; n is called
     the modulus.  Choose a number, e, less than n and relatively prime
      to (p-1)(q-1), and find its reciprocal mod (p-1)(q-1),
     and call this d.  Thus ed = 1 mod (p-1)(q-1); e and d are
     called the public and private exponents, respectively.  The
     public key is the pair (n, e); the private key is d.  The
     factors p and q must be kept secret, or destroyed.  It is
     difficult (presumably) to obtain the private key d from the
     public key (n, e).  If one could factor n into p and q,
     however, then one could obtain the private key d.  Thus the
     entire security of RSA depends on the difficulty of factoring;
     an easy method for factoring products of large prime numbers
     would break RSA.
  
     RSA FAQ (http://rsa.com/rsalabs/faq/faq_home.html).
  
     (2004-07-14)