An encryption method for transmitting data that uses key pairs, comprising one private and one public key. Public key cryptography is called "asymmetric encryption" because both keys are not equal.

Public-key encryption, as noted in the profile of cryptographer Bruce Schneier, is complicated in detail but simple in outline. The article below is an outline of the principles of the most common ...

The counterintuitive solution, known as public key cryptography, relies not on keeping a key secret but rather on making it widely available. The trick is to also use a second key that you never ...

Public-key algorithms are important too. They help get around the fundamental drawback of symmetric-key encryption, which is that you need a secure way to share symmetric keys in the first place.

The U.S. Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has selected four quantum-resistant cryptographic algorithms for general encryption and digital signatures.

It’s called public-key cryptography. To over simplify it: imagine you have a mail box. This box has two keys. One key lets you drop mail into the mail slot, and one key lets you take mail out.

The answer is possible because of another crypto trick known as public-key encryption. In public key crypto systems, a program on your computer mathematically generates a pair of keys. One ...