Public-key cryptography and information security Essay

Public-key cryptography and information security - Essay Example Public Key Cryptography (PKC) uses a key with two elements, a "public key" and a "private key", for the implementation of an encryption algorithm that doesn't require two parties (sender and receiver) to first exchange a secret key in an attempt to carry out the process of communication. In this scenario, the public key part is used for encryption entirely at the receiver side, whose private key part is applied for decryption. However, in order to make this communication safe it is necessary to make sure that only the intended receiver is able to access the private part of the key. Moreover, this concept is also used in elegant implementation of digital signatures (Tschabitscher, 2011) and (Adleman, Rivest, Shamir, & Williamson, 2010). Public key cryptography is considered as extremely protected for the reason that it does not require a secret common key between the receiver and sender. However, other encryption methods and technologies that utilize a single common key to both decryp t and encrypt information depend mutually on both parties (sender and receiver) in order to make a decision about a key ahead of time exclusive of other parties finding what that key is (Kayne, 2011). The most important benefit of PKC is its excellent security and ease of use. In addition, PKC is very useful in implementing secure algorithms since there is need to have an identical key for both parties (sender and the receiver).