- Describe the concept of public and private key with your own words.
A private key is a randomly generated number. The number is incredibly long and the chance of generating the same number twice is infinitesimally small, to the point that itās considered nigh-on impossible. This private key is secret and accessible only to the holder who originally generated it.
A public key is generated from the private key, which is visible to all.
- What 2 use-cases can public key cryptography be used for?
Anyone can use a public key to encrypt messages sent to the owner of that public key. Once encrypted with the public key, it can only be unencrypted with the private key.
The public key can also be used to verify digital signatures. With this approach, a message is sent with a signature generated from the private key. The receiver of the message can reference the public key to confirm that it was generated by the associated private key in order to verify who sent the message.