Enforcing Integrity with Hashing

Chapter 1 introduced hashing as one of the methods used to enforce integrity. Recall that a hash is simply a number created by executing an algorithm against a file or message. As long as the original data is not changed, the hash will always be the same. Knowing this, you can execute the hashing algorithm on the file or message at one point to create a hash, and then later execute the same hashing algorithm again. If the hashes are the same, the original data has not been modified. It has retained integrity.

imageEXAM TIP Hashing algorithms are used to enforce integrity. A hashing algorithm creates a hash. The hash ...

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