What is RSA encryption?

RSA encryption is fundamentally an asymmetric encryption algorithm utilized for secure data transmission. The essence of RSA lies in its reliance on large prime numbers to generate public and private key pairs. This is critical because the security of RSA hinges on the mathematical difficulty of factoring the product of two large prime numbers, a task that is computationally intensive and currently infeasible with existing processing capabilities when the prime numbers are sufficiently large.

As such, RSA allows users to encrypt data with a public key, which can be shared openly, while only the corresponding private key, kept secret, can decrypt the data. This asymmetric nature ensures that even if the public key is widely distributed, the private key remains secure, providing confidentiality in data exchange.

The mention of "small prime numbers" in another choice does not accurately represent RSA, as the use of large primes is what underpins its security. Additionally, RSA is not a symmetric encryption algorithm, nor is it a hashing algorithm. Symmetric encryption relies on a single key for both encryption and decryption, which differs fundamentally from RSA's two-key system, and hashing algorithms serve a different purpose, focusing on verifying data integrity rather than providing confidentiality.