Ethical Hacking: Techniques, Tools, and Countermeasures, 4th Edition

Asymmetric Encryption

The other primary type of encryption in use is asymmetric encryption. It was originally conceived to address some of the problems with symmetric encryption. Specifically, asymmetric encryption addresses the problems of key distribution, generation, and nonrepudiation.

Asymmetric key cryptography is more commonly called public key cryptography. Asymmetric encryption was derived from group theory in mathematics, which allows for pairs of keys to be generated such that an operation performed with one key can be reversed only with the other key in the pair. The key pairs generated by asymmetric encryption systems are known as public and private keys. By design, everyone generally has access to the public key and can use it ...