
Wikipedia has a more detailed explanation of how keys work. As an extra security measure, most SSH programs store the private key in a passphrase-protected format, so that if your computer is stolen or broken in to, you should have enough time to disable your old public key before they break the passphrase and start using your key. When you log in to a computer, the SSH server uses the public key to "lock" messages in a way that can only be "unlocked" by your private key - this means that even the most resourceful attacker can't snoop on, or interfere with, your session. ssh/authorized_keys file on all the computers you want to log in to. The private key is kept on the computer you log in from, while the public key is stored on the. Each key is a large number with special mathematical properties. With public key authentication, the authenticating entity has a public key and a private key.
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My computer - a perfectly ordinary desktop PC - had over 4,000 attempts to guess my password and almost 2,500 break-in attempts in the last week alone. If you don't think it's important, try logging the login attempts you get for the next week.

This is particularly important if the computer is visible on the internet. Public key authentication is more secure than password authentication.
Parent page: Internet and Networking > SSH
