Which statement about RSA is true?

RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman) is a public-key cryptosystem, meaning it uses a pair of mathematically linked keys: a public key for encryption and a private key for decryption. This asymmetry allows anyone to encrypt data using the public key, but only the holder of the corresponding private key can decrypt it. The option "Uses pre-shared keys for encryption" is incorrect because pre-shared keys are typically used in symmetric encryption or for initial authentication, not as the core mechanism of RSA. "Is a private (symmetric) encryption algorithm" is wrong because RSA is asymmetric (public-key), not symmetric. "Requires both sides to have identical keys" describes symmetric encryption, where the same key is used for both encryption and decryption, which is not how RSA operates.