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Encryption keys
that the message is authentically from her, she can first encrypt it
using her private key, and encrypt the resulting message again
using Bobs public key. Once Bob decrypts the message using his
private key, he can try to decrypt the result again using Alices
public key. If this is successful, he can be confident that
message musthave come from Alice (since nobody else should
know her private key).
So an important property of asymmetric cryptography is that the
private key is the only key that can decrypt ciphertext encrypted
using the corresponding public key and the public key is the only
key capable of decrypting files encrypted with the corresponding
private key. Crucially, the value of one key cannot easily be
determined from the other, so even if the public key falls into
hostile hands, the value of the private key cannot be determined.
Public keys can be distributed using email attachments or through
public key chain servers which act as distributors for large
numbers of public keys. The creator of a public key uploads their
key to the key chain server and it is freely available to anyone who
wants to use it.
Although the mathematics behind public key cryptography is
incredibly complex, the process of using it is relatively simple. To
send a message using public key cryptography is simple. The
sender obtains a copy of the recipients public key, either by email
or from a key chain server, and uses it to encrypt the message.
The resulting ciphertext is then sent to the recipient who uses their
corresponding private key to restore the original plaintext.
Public key cryptography is popular because there does not have
to be any initial secure exchange of secret keys for an encrypted