Glossary:Public key cryptography
Public key or asymmetric cryptography is a form of encryption using separate keys for encryption and decryption, neither of which can be derived from the other. The public key can be used to encrypt messages which only the holder of the corresponding private key can decrypt. Alternatively, the holder of a private key can "digitally sign" a message by using it to encrypt a digest of the message, sent with the message itself. A recipient can prove the authorship of the message by successfully decrypting the digest using the author's previously published public key.