The article says that the two functions, f : x -> pow(x, pubkey) mod m g : x -> pow(x, privkey) mod m being inverses of each other was a big breakthro

The article says that the two functions, f : x -> pow(x, pubkey) mod m g : x -> pow(x, privkey) mod m being inverses of each other was a big breakthrough when it was discovered. The article implies, but does not directly state, that this "big breakthrough" was part of what separated the "classical" era of cryptography (pre-1977 as defined by the article) from the "modern" era (post-1977). The "big breakthrough" result was actually proven by Euler hundreds of years ago! [1] The innovation of RSA was building a working public-key cryptosystem around Euler's result, not the result itself. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euler%27s_theorem http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euler%27s_theorem