RSA

(Rivest-Shamir-Adleman), the most widely used asymmetric algorithm, is embedded in the SSL/TLS protocol which is used to provide communications security over a computer network. RSA derives its security from the computational difficulty of factoring large integers that are the product of two large prime numbers. Multiplying two large primes is easy, but the difficulty of determining the original numbers from the total -- factoring -- forms the basis of public key cryptography security. The time it takes to factor the product of two sufficiently large primes is considered to be beyond the capabilities of most attackers, excluding nation state actors who may have access to sufficient computing power. RSA keys are typically 1024- or 2048-bits long, but experts believe that 1024-bit keys could be broken in the near future, which is why government and industry are moving to a minimum key length of 2048-bits.

Ari Juels was previously the chief scientist of RSA