Question

In asymmetric key cryptography, the private key is kept by:

Answer 1

the owner not publicly

Answer 2

"In an asymmetric key, cryptography system/an asymmetric key cryptosystem, the private key is kept safe with the person who has to receive and decrypt the encrypted data.

To understand this, first one needs to understand the difference between asymmetric and symmetric key encryption/decryption. And before that, one needs to understand encryption.

So, encryption is basically a process in which a piece of data is rendered unreadable and it can be converted to readable form only with the process of decryption. Now, to keep the encrypted files secure, there needs to be some sort of key for unlocking/decrypting the data.

So, in symmetric key cryptography, single key is used which is also called secret key. This causes a great security issue because the key should be protected with utmost care since anyone with access to the key can easily decrypt the data.

So, to decrypt the data, one needs a secret key using which the data was encrypted whereas, in an asymmetric key encryption, two different keys are used for the processes of encryption and decryption.

So, if I have to receive a file from you via asymmetric key cryptosystem, I'll send you my public key using which you'll encrypt the file and send it back to me. Now, the file can only be decrypted using the private key which I never sent to anyone.

Thus, the security of the key is ensured which makes asymmetric key encryption much more secure."