Part 3/9:
Historically, the exchange of secret information was secured through symmetric key algorithms, requiring both parties to meet and share a secret key in person. However, this method became impractical as digital communication surged. In 1977, a breakthrough led by Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman birthed RSA encryption. This system utilizes two large prime numbers to generate a public key, making encryption possible without prior personal contact. The challenge lies in reversing this process—factoring the product of those primes—without knowledge of the original numbers.