public key cryptography

Public key cryptography uses a key with two parts. The public key part is used for encryption exclusively for the recipient, whose private key part is applied for decryption. For public key cryptography to be save it is important that only the intended recipient knows the private part of the key. A security package in widespread use with email that uses public key cryptography is PGP. Also Known As: Public Key Encryption, Public/Private Key Cryptography.

Public key encryption provides a user with a key pair -- private and public. The public key is distributed to everyone with whom the user wants to communicate. In Domino, the public key is published in the Domino Directory. Public/private key encryption is used for two purposes: to communicate securely and to generate electronic signatures.

The type of cryptography in which the encryption process is publicly available and unprotected, but in which a part of the decryption key is protected so that only a party with knowledge of both parts of the decryption process can decrypt the cipher text. Note: Commonly called non-secret encryption in professional cryptologic circles. FIREFLY is an application of public key cryptography. [NIS] 2. [An] Encryption system using a linked pair of keys. What one pair of keys encrypts, the other pair decrypts. [INFOSEC-99]