Root n00b - what are RSA keys and how can you loose them?

[daystrom]

As the title says, what are 4G RSA keys and how can you loose them forever?

I'd like to root to remove Sprint junk but the whole RSA key thing has me worried!

 

[akazabam]

Here's the answer to both your questions:

[Q] What Removes your RSA PRIVATE KEY - xda-developers

You don't really have anything to worry about if you're just rooting the phone. I highly recommend flashing RA recovery instead of Clockwork since it will backup your RSA keys (the wimax partition). Really, flashing the wimax radio is the only time you need to worry about losing them, generally. Read that thread for more information.