Hello,

I took a basic Encryption class a few years back. We studied things like simple subsitution cyphers and such, but when it came to Modern Public Key Encryption, i was quite lost. If i recall, Public Key uses a pair of two large prime numbers. And the Encryption key itself is based off of the two prime numbers multiplied together. Further more, if i understand correctly, The only two Decryption keys will be the origional prime numbers. (or multiples of those primes). Can any one Confirm this?

The reason why i ask, is because im working on a factoring program and id like to know the average length of these keys when multiplied together. I know the RSA has some test keys avialable, but im interested what the current length being used.

Anyways any help will be apreciated, as i will use such information in an up coming Tutorial on Modern Day Factoring. Thank you.