The prime numbers are critical in cryptography. Almost all of our current digital security infrastructure is based on the concept of multiplying large numbers t

The prime numbers are critical in cryptography. Almost all of our current digital security infrastructure is based on the concept of multiplying large numbers together modulo suitably big prime numbers. Any major step towards understanding them (such as a closed-form equation for primes) would have major mathematical knock-on effects which may or may not undermine these methods, or provide us with a basis for even stronger cryptographic mechanisms to make use of in the future.