From the course: CompTIA Security+ (SY0-701) Cert Prep: 1 General Security Concepts
Unlock the full course today
Join today to access over 23,200 courses taught by industry experts.
Elliptic-curve and quantum cryptography
From the course: CompTIA Security+ (SY0-701) Cert Prep: 1 General Security Concepts
Elliptic-curve and quantum cryptography
Let's take a look at two more encryption technologies that are covered on the exam, but they're a little less commonly used. Elliptic curve cryptography and quantum cryptography. All public key cryptography is based upon the difficulty of solving complex mathematical problems. In the case of the RSA algorithm, the security of the algorithm depends upon the difficulty of factoring the product of two large prime numbers. You might recall from a math class that prime numbers are those that are divisible only by themselves, and the number, one. Common examples of prime numbers include 2, 3, 5, 7, and 11. Now, if I told you that I was going to multiply two prime numbers together and provide you with the answer, you might think that you'd be able to perform that calculation. For example, if I tell you that 15 is the product of two prime numbers, you can easily determine that those numbers are three and five. Or if I asked you to perform the prime factorization of 21, you'd quickly figure…