A coffee shop is considering accepting orders and payments through their phone app and have decided to use public key encryption
to encrypt their customers' credit card information. Is this a secure form of payment?A. No, public key encryption allows the credit card information to be read by the public.B. No, the internet protocols are open standards and thus everything sent over the internet is sent "in the clear".C. Yes, public key encryption is built upon computationally hard problems that even powerful computers cannot easily solve.D. Yes, public key encryption is secure because it transmits credit card information in binary.
C. Yes, public key encryption is built upon computationally hard problems that even powerful computers cannot easily solve
Explanation:
Public Key encryption makes use of a public key and a private key to secure data sent over the internet, such as credit card information. The public key is shared publicly, as seen with an SSL/TLS certificate. The data encrypted by the public key can only be decrypted by the private key found on the website server. Data encrypted by the private key can only be decrypted by a specific public key. This makes public key encryption complex and hard to solve, making it very secure .
