RSA

A public key encryption algorithm developed by Ronald Rivest,Adi Shamir, and Leonard Adleman in 1978 that became a de facto standard. RSA formed the basis for a number of encryption programs, including Pretty Good Privacy (PGP). Current versions of RSA employ a 128-bit encryption algorithm, which is computationally infeasible to decode without the key.The 40-bit export version is not considered highly secure. See also encryption, PGP, public key encryption, and standard.