Asymmetric cryptography
Unlike symmetric-key algorithms, asymmetric cryptography or public-key algorithms that utilize two keys for protection of data. One key to encrypt the data is known as the public key, and it can be shared safely with other parties. Another key to decrypt the data is known as the private key, and it must not be shared.
The public key can be used by any person to encrypt data. However, only the person with the private key that corresponds to the public key can decrypt the data back to its original human-readable form. The public and private keys are generated using complex computational algorithms.
In a typical scenario, a person who owns a pair of public and private keys would share the public key with other people ...
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