In today's world of communication, security is the main concern, that's where the public and private keys come into the concept. These keys use a cryptographic algorithm to retain the integrity and confidentiality of data as well as protect your data from malicious access or control. But the question arises of where they are used and how they work. Well, in this article we will discuss the fascinating world of cryptography technology used by public and private key backends. We will also explain the difference between these two keys so without wasting more time let's get started!
What Is a Public Key?
Public keys are often used for secure communication over the internet. Users spread the public key over the internet to receive messages or data from the senders. The public key can be spread without any fear because it doesn't reveal the private key as well as it can never decrypt data. The public key is only used to encrypt data which can only be decrypted by the private key of that public key. It is also known as a cryptographic key, cryptography is a mechanism used to encrypt data so no one can sniff data over the internet as well as the public key is part of an asymmetric key.
What Is a Private Key?
The private key is a secret piece of each user through which the user can decrypt the data as well as it ensures the user's identity or authenticity. Private keys ensure secure communication using various mechanisms such as a digital signature. The private key is also a part of the asymmetric key, in an asymmetric key each user has a pair of keys (public or private) through which the public key data will be encrypted and private data will be decrypted.
Let’s understand the public-private key concept with an example, for instance, “Bob” wants to send a message to “Alice”. Bob will use the Alice public key which is <Alice(public key)> to encrypt the message and this encrypted message will only be decrypted by using the <Alice(private key)> which is only known by Alice. And except Alice, no one can decrypt the data.
How Public-Private Key Ensures Authenticity?
For instance, a message sent by Bob to Alice will ensure that the message is sent by Bob. To ensure authenticity public-private keys play a vital role.
Public-private keys also ensure the authenticity of the sender, the recipient can use their private key to encrypt a digital signature that can be verified using their public key, and the digital signature will act as a unique identifier of the sender and guarantee that the message has not been altered by someone else.
Conclusion
The public-private key is the mechanism to ensure data authenticity, integrity, and confidentiality, as well as users spread the public key to receive data from different users. In this mechanism, the user uses the public key to encrypt the data and then sends it to the receiver, the receiver uses a private key to decrypt the data. The private key is always the unique code and is only known by the actual user in case of private key stealing your data will be accessed by some malicious users so it is very important to keep your private keys secret and avoid sharing them with anyone.
