What is the largest known prime number?

I'm curious to know, what exactly is the largest prime number that has been discovered so far? It's fascinating to think about the vastness of numbers and how mathematicians continue to push the boundaries of what we know about them. Is there a specific method or algorithm used to find these elusive prime numbers, or is it more of a brute force approach? And what implications does the discovery of such a large prime number have on the world of cryptography and other fields that rely on the properties of prime numbers?