
10 IBM Communications Server for AIX, V6: New Features and Implementation Scenarios
2.1.2 Public-key encryption
Public-key encryption uses a pair of keys, a public key and a private key. The
server’s public key is published, and the private key is kept secret. To send a
secure message to the server, the client encrypts the message using the
server’s public key. When the server receives the message, it decrypts the
message using its private key. The message is secure because it cannot be
decrypted by means of the public key. Public key encryption has a big
advantage over the symmetric-key approach in that no secret key needs to be
transmitted. Howev