Bilateral key exchange

Hey there! Have you ever exchanged a secret with your friend? Perhaps you whispered it in their ear or passed a note to them. Well, computers also need to exchange secrets in order to communicate securely over the internet.

Bilateral key exchange is a special way that computers can exchange secrets so that other people can't figure out what they are saying to each other.

Let's pretend we have two friends named Alice and Bob, who want to talk to each other secretly. First, Alice and Bob each generate a special code called a "key." Think of it like a secret password that only they know.

Then, they want to share their keys with each other so they can use them to encode their messages. However, they don't want anybody else to see their keys.

So, Alice sends Bob a lock that only she has the key to unlock. Bob puts his key inside the lock and sends it back to Alice. Since Alice is the only one who can unlock the lock, she can retrieve Bob's key, too.

Now, Alice and Bob both have each other's keys without anyone else knowing them. They can use these keys to encode their messages back and forth, so nobody except them can read what they are saying.

And that's bilateral key exchange! It's a way for computers to safely share secrets and talk to each other privately.