RSA (Rivest–Shamir–Adleman) is an algorithm used by modern computers to encrypt and decrypt messages. It is an asymmetric cryptographic algorithm. Asymmetric means that there are two different keys. This is also called public key cryptography, because one of the keys can be given to anyone. The other key must be kept private. The algorithm is based on the fact that finding the factors of a large composite number is difficult.
RSA involves a public key and private key. The public key can be known to everyone; it is used to encrypt messages. Messages encrypted using the public key can only be decrypted with the private key.
