What is the RSA Algorithm in Information Security?


RSA stands for Rivest, Shamir, Adleman. They are the founder of public-key encryption technology, which is a public-key cryptosystem for protected information transmission. It is a standard encryption approach for transmitting responsive information, particularly while transferring data over the internet.

The Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA) encryption algorithm is an asymmetric encryption algorithm that is broadly used in some products and services. A private and public key are generated, with the public key being available to anyone and the private key being a private known only by the key set creator.

With RSA, the private or public key can encrypt the information, while the different key decrypts it. This is one of the reasons RSA is the second-hand asymmetric encryption algorithm.

A prime number is the one that is divisible only by one and itself. For example, 3 is a prime number, because it can be divided only by 1 or 3. But 4 is not a prime number, because other than by 1 and 4, it can also be divided by 2. Likewise, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17….are prime numbers whereas 6, 8, 9, 10, 12 are non-prime numbers.

The RSA Algorithm depends on the mathematical part that it is simply to discover and multiply large prime numbers together, but it is intensely complex to factor their product. RSA supports both confidentiality (encryption with public key and decrypting with private key) and digital signing uniformly protected.

RSA Information Security pioneered and marketed the technology that creates it possible to connect and transfer data and documents securely on the web and creates and authenticate the identity of virtual trading partners—developments important to the widespread acceptance of digital commerce.

The technology can also be used to avoid snoopers from eavesdropping on mobile calls and other digital communications. RSA's technology is known as public-key encryption. It was an advance of light-years over earlier schemes to create computers, computer networks, and computer information tamper-proof.

RSA uses two exponents including e and d, where e is made public and d is private. Let P is the plaintext and C is the ciphertext. There are two algebraic structure including ring and a group.

  • Encryption/decryption ring − RSA need a ring R =< Zn, +, x > for encryption and decryption with two arithmetic operations i.e., addition and multiplication. In RSA, this ring is public because the modulus n is public. Someone can send a message to someone utilizing this ring to do encryption.

  • Key generation group − RSA need a multiplicative group G =< Zфn,*, X > for key generation. This group provides only multiplication and divisions, which are required for generation of public and private keys. This group is secret from the public because its modulus, ф(n) is secret from the public.

Updated on: 16-Mar-2022

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