What Does Public Key Cryptography (PKC) Mean?

Public key cryptography (PKC) is an encryption technique that uses a paired public and private key (or asymmetric key) algorithm for secure data communication. A message sender uses a recipient’s public key to encrypt a message. To decrypt the sender’s message, only the recipient’s private key may be used.

Techopedia Explains Public Key Cryptography (PKC)

PKC is a cryptographic algorithm and cryptosystem component implemented by a variety of internet standards, including Transport Layer Security (TLS), Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), GNU Privacy Guard (GPG), Secure Socket Layer (SSL) and Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) websites.