“What is RSA encryption?” and “What is an RSA algorithm?” These are two of the first questions someone who hasn’t dealt with SSL/TLS certificates before asks when they come across the term “RSA.” RSA is a term quite commonly used when it comes to cryptography. RSA is a modern cryptographic algorithm that encrypts and decrypts data. It was invented by mathematicians named Rivest, Shamir and Adleman (hence where the name “RSA” was derived) in year 1978.