in a public key cryptosystem, that key of a user's key pair which is publicly known, a cryptographic key that can be obtained and used by anyone to encrypt messages intended for a particular recipient, such that the encrypted messages can be deciphered only by using a second key that is known only to the recipient (the private key), asümmeetrilise krüptosüsteemi võtmepaari kuuluv avalikkusele teadaolev võti