You give the public 'lock' to remote parties to encrypt or 'lock' data. It is more helpful to think of the public key as a 'lock' and the private key as the 'key'. The private vs public nomenclature can be confusing as they are both called keys. The key pair contains a public and private key. SSH uses a pair of keys to initiate a secure handshake between remote parties. The SSH acronym is also used to describe a set of tools used to interact with the SSH protocol. SSH is used for remote file transfer, network management, and remote operating system access. This authenticated and encrypted secure network protocol is used for remote communication between machines on an unsecured open network.
An SSH key is an access credential for the SSH (secure shell) network protocol.
