The RSA algorithm is a feast of genius that combines theoretical math and practical coding into working asymmetric cryptography. Here’s how it works.

The issues relate to RSA, the ubiquitous encryption algorithm and crypto system that helps protect everything from web browsers and VPNs to email and messaging applications.

The inventors of the RSA algorithm published a list of RSA keys and challenged people to find the original primes, as a way of tracking how secure the encryption is against modern computers.