Public key cryptography depends on key pairs. Each pair has a public key, which can be shared freely, and a private key, which must stay secret with its owner. The two are mathematically related so that what one key does, only the other can undo, yet the private key cannot practically be worked out from the public key. Managing these keys properly, including how they are created, stored, shared, backed up, rotated and destroyed, is as important as the algorithms themselves. Most real-world cryptographic failures come from poor key management rather than broken math.
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