Internet Security - Public Key Encryption

Is it possible to send e-mail to someone and make sure that no one else can read it ?

The answer is yes. A very reliable method of doing this is to use public key encryption. It is like having passwords. You have one password to encrypt something and a different password to decrypt it.

If I wanted to send you something encrypted then I would ask you for you public key. You would send this public key to me, in plain daylight. There is no need to keep this key a secret. This is the password used to make the mail secret. There is a different password to decrypt it.

So I've got your key. I use you public key to encrypt the message. I then send the message to you.

You then use you private key to decrypt it. Now if anyone was to get hold of your private key then they would be able to decrypt the data. The beauty of this system is that you never use the private key for anything but decrypting messages sent to you. You never send it anywhere.

If you want to send me an encrypted message then you first of all need my public key. Do you get the jist ?

There are two keys for a single direction transaction, the public and private keys. You give you public key to all the people that you want to be able to send you encrypted messages. You keep your private key on your computer.

I give you my public key and keep my private key. You want to encrypt something for me, you use my public key.

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Last Updated 1 February 1998 by Nik Swain (email: nikswain@oocities.com)
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