>On Wed, 16 Feb 2000, Shaun Cloherty wrote:
>> doco..... like What's this certificate for??
>> How do they work??
A pair of keys, one known publicly, the other known only by you,
(public/private key pair), typically using RSA algorithm, which depends
on raising very large prime numbers to very large powers & multiplying them
together. RSA is difficult to crack, need to find the 2 prime factors
of extremely large numbers. Can be done, but its very slow.
Has been cracked using say 24 Sun workstations in parallel, or similar.
Because RSA is slow & cumbersome, its only used to authenticate that each
side is who they claim to be, and send over a randomly generated key
to be used for this session only, for the bulk of the data exchange.
Typically uses DES or similar for remainder of session data,
as DES can encrypt/decrypt much faster than RSA.
See a cryptography book for more.
e.g. Network Security by Kaufman, Perlman, Speciner.
Next week how to play the flute - a hollow tube with holes on the side,
blow in one end & move your fingers up & down on the holes.
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Brian Martin, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Future Software Pty Ltd, Sydney, Australia.
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