Cryptic primes

Prime numbers reserve a special place in number theory and computer science. Their extensive use in data structures, cryptography, nucleotide encoding, in developing musical tones and such merit their importance across all disciplines, especially in computer science. The article looks at the history and applications of primes, particularly their use in classical cryptographic systems, such as the Diffie-Hellman asymmetric-key cryptography algorithm and the RSA public key encryption system. Quantum cryptographic techniques are also discussed.