A Conversation for Digital Codes
Whoops?
scaryfish Started conversation Jun 12, 2001
"If you want to send a message and make sure that nobody can tamper with it, you encrypt it with the private key, and the receiver decrypts it with the public key"
Umm... I think that you encript it with THEIR public key, they decrypt it with THEIR private key. You got it right just above that, but this bit, I think, is wrong.
If they decrypt it with the public key then anyone (everyone has access to the public key) can decrypt it.
It was probably just a typo or something... 
Whoops?
Martin Harper Posted Jun 12, 2001
Right - as you say, anybody can decrypt it. The point is that the only person who could have *sent* the message is the holder of the private key. So it's a way of garanteeing that you are who you say you are, and such like...
Whoops?
scaryfish Posted Jun 13, 2001
Oh, I get it, it is just signing the message. Now I understand.
Sorry!
Whoops?
Martin Harper Posted Jun 13, 2001
yep - digital signatures and such - exactly so.
Hmm - I could have written that a little clearer, no? 
Key: Complain about this post
Whoops?
More Conversations for Digital Codes
Write an Entry
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a wholly remarkable book. It has been compiled and recompiled many times and under many different editorships. It contains contributions from countless numbers of travellers and researchers."