ITPEC FE Morning October 2021 Question 38

Public Key Encryption for Secure Email — use asymmetric encryption to prevent information leakage.

To securely send data via email:

• •Receiver generates a key pair (public + private)
• •Receiver sends the public key to the sender
• •Sender encrypts data with the receiver's public key
• •Receiver decrypts with their private key

Why not others:
- (a) Encrypt with private key, send key by email — private keys must never be transmitted; intercepting both emails compromises the data
- (b) Password in the same email as the file — intercepting one email exposes both the file and the password; address verification does not prevent in-transit interception
- (d) Compress data on USB — compression saves space but provides no encryption or security

Key rule: In public key cryptography, the receiver generates the key pair. The public key encrypts; only the private key (never shared) decrypts.

AI-generated — may contain errors