Asymmetric Encryption

Encryption is the process of disguising information to make it unreadable by those who lack the tools to decipher it. In asymmetric encryption, the tool you need is called a key, which is a secret number or text, like a password, that is known only to the person using it. Asymmetric encryption uses two keys: one key, called the encryption key, is used to code the message, and the other key, called the decryption key, is used to decode it. In asymmetric encryption, these keys are different, while in symmetric encryption, they are the same. In asymmetric encryption, the decryption key cannot be computed from the encryption key (at least not in any reasonable amount of time).

Asymmetric encryption is also called ‘public-key encryption’ because the encryption key can be made public. Anybody can use the encryption (public) key to encrypt a message, but only a specific person with the corresponding decryption (private) key can decrypt the message. As its name indicates, the private key is specific to a particular user or system and is kept private.

Asymmetric encryption systems are good for keeping information confidential: a message that a sender encrypts using the recipient's public key can only be decrypted by the recipient's paired private key.