What type of cryptography is believed to be faster and less resource-intensive than RSA?

Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) is recognized for its efficiency compared to RSA. It operates on the mathematics of elliptic curves over finite fields, allowing it to provide a similar level of security with significantly shorter key lengths. For example, a 256-bit key in ECC is considered to offer comparable security to a 3072-bit key in RSA. This compactness translates to faster computation, which is particularly advantageous in environments where processing power and memory are constrained, such as mobile devices and embedded systems.

In contrast, while the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is indeed efficient for symmetric encryption, the context of the question specifically pertains to asymmetric cryptography. Thus, AES does not relate directly when comparing to RSA in terms of public key cryptography.

SHA-2 is a family of cryptographic hash functions and does not serve the same purpose as RSA or ECC, which are both used for encryption and digital signatures.

Therefore, the recognition of ECC as faster and requiring fewer resources than RSA positions it as the correct answer in this scenario.