my 180 word paper detailing RSA encryption to someone that is computer illiterate. help me make it 300 words plz =p



Until the 1970's, encryption was based only on symmetric keys, the sender of an encrypted message uses the same key to

encrypt the message and gives the same key to the receiver to decrypt it. The sender would have to have a separate key for each

person receiving an encrypted message. RSA Encryption is a public key method of encryption. This means that a separate key is

used to encrypt the message than to decrypt it. Public key encryption works because locking and unlocking are separate operations.

The decryption key can be public thus you can give the same key to all receivers. The key means nothing if you don't have the lock

or encryption that it goes to. The actual mathematics behind public key encryption seems very complicated and uninteresting to me,

but public key encryption is becoming the most popular type of encryption because there are no issues with distribution of

decryption keys. You can also alleviate someone being able to unlock all of your messages just by discovering a single key that

you used for each message.

tl;dr;
I'm assuming that be "detailing RSA encryption" you mean summarize the crytosystem;

First, research the difference between asymmetric and symmetric encryption algorithms: One involves a private/public key pairing and the other a shared private key.
Most handshakes good for setting up a secure communication involve first using the private/public to securely transfer a shared private key to both parties, and then using that shared key for encryption/decryption.

Second, figure out if RSA is symmetric or asymmetric: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSA_(algorithm)

Third, explain the algorithm for building the key(s) used by RSA. I'm being purposely vague because you are lazy and should have been able to get this far yourself.

PM me if any questions

Cheers.

rather than making a more or less negative comment (which might actually reflect on you) you could change that to:

The mathematics behind public key encryption is not easy but interesting. It is based on ...

and you can easily pad that out to make up the missing words

awesome thanks a ton this pretty much finished it for me=p

revised and much better paper 237 words close enuf sorry prof over 13 words lol its suppsoed to be 250




Encryption was based only on symmetric keys until the 1970's, the sender of an encrypted message uses the same key to

encrypt the message and gives the same key to the receiver to decrypt it. The sender would have to have a separate key for each

person receiving an encrypted message. RSA Encryption is a public key method of encryption. This means that a separate key is

used to encrypt the message than to decrypt it. Public key encryption works because locking and unlocking are separate operations.

The decryption key can be public thus you can give the same key to all receivers. The key means nothing if you don't have the lock

or encryption that it goes to. The actual mathematics behind public key encryption is complicated but public key encryption is

becoming the most popular type of encryption because there are no issues with distribution of decryption keys since there is a

completely separate key or lock needed. You can also alleviate someone being able to unlock all of your messages just by

discovering a single key that you used for each message. Encryption is a very powerful tool and can be potentially illegal because

you can hide almost anything and make it virtually impossible to find with a deep enough encryption. The math is very hard and i

am sure it takes a lot of expertise to decrypt something if it is even possible.