Question

Write a 1 to 2 page paper explaining the need for large prime numbers in the cybersecurity field.

Answer 1

Prime numbers are the whole numbers that can only be divided by themselves and by one.They are being used in our everyday life through encryption and cyber security.The RSA encryption system uses prime numbers to encrypt data.The reason for this is because of how difficult it is to find the prime factorization.This system allows for secure transmission of data like credit card numbers online.In RSA encryption,the prime numbers being multiplied together are used to create the users public key.In general the two prime numbers are used to create both the users public and private keys.The RSA encryption system uses really big prime numbers to form the private and the public keys,the reason for this is to make it very difficult and time consuming to prime factor our public keys,which of course can breach our security.For example ,suppose Ram and Sam want to send some secret message over the internet.They need an encryption system for this.Since the communication will be done online,they first need to communicate with the encryption system itself.If Ram choose two very big prime numbers and then calculate its product and then send this information openly through the internet then it would be very difficult for any one to find out what those two numbers was without knowing the prime factors which only Ram knows.

So Ram sends the product of the two prime numbers to Sam keeping the prime numbers secret which only he knows.It can only be decrypted by Sam who has the private keys from Ram and no one else.If any eavesdropper tries to decrypt without knowing the private keys then it would take the time util the sun dies to decrypt it even if he/she uses super fast computers.