AN INTRODUCTION TO CRYPTOGRAPHY RSA, ELGAMAL AND ELLIPTIC CURVE ENCRYPTION

The purpose of this research is to understand the basic principles of public key encryption from a mathematically perspective and identify security flaws in basic RSA and ElGamal encryption. In the digital age it is important to both understand how to securely send information between parties, and identify potential data leaks. This project analyses research in three types of encryption and summarizes the most important aspects of each type. For ElGamal and RSA there are sections regarding possible attacks on the basic encryption schemes as well as discussion on how to improve security with minimal loss in efficiency. Understanding encryption is vital for securing information and this paper will hopefully lead to more research into secure efficient encryption methods.