https://algorithmsoup.wordpress.com/2019/01/15/breaking-an-unbreakable-code-part-1-the-hack/ RSA encryption allows for anyone to send me messages that only I can decode. To set this up, I select two large random primes and (each of which is hundreds of bits long), and release their product online for everyone to see; is known as my public key . In addition, I pick some number which shares no factors with or and release it online as well. The beauty of RSA encryption is that using only the information I publicly released, anyone can encode a message they want to send me. But without knowing the values of and , nobody but me can decode the message. And even though everyone knows my public key , that doesn’t give them any efficient way to find values for or . In fact, even factoring a 232-digit number took a group of researchers more than 1,500 years of computing time (distributed among hundreds of computers). On the surface, RSA encryption seems uncrackable. And it mi