Final answer:
The most widely used asymmetric algorithm today is the RSA algorithm, which is commonly used in secure communication protocols such as HTTPS for securing online transactions and data transfer.
Step-by-step explanation:
The most widely used asymmetric algorithm today is the RSA algorithm. RSA stands for Rivest-Shamir-Adleman, the names of the three inventors of this algorithm. It is commonly used in secure communication protocols such as HTTPS for securing online transactions and data transfer.
One of the key properties of RSA is its ability to encrypt and decrypt messages using a pair of keys: a public key for encryption and a private key for decryption. This makes RSA suitable for digital signatures, authentication, and secure key exchange.
On the other hand, AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) is a symmetric encryption algorithm widely used for securing data at rest or in transit. 3DES (Triple Data Encryption Standard) is an older symmetric algorithm that is still used in certain legacy systems. SHA (Secure Hash Algorithm) is not an asymmetric algorithm; it is a cryptographic hash function used for data integrity and digital signatures.