Hash Algorithms
Many people confuse hashing with encryption. Hashing is in no way connected to encryption. Hashes produce a “fingerprint” of some data by taking the data and running in through an algorithm. The same data always produces the same value. If even one bit in the data changes, the fingerprint is different. In this way, we can get a large amount of data and, using a small fingerprint, make sure our data has not been altered. Two main hash algorithms in production today are MD5 and SHA-1.
Hash algorithms help us with integrity, making sure data has not been modified in transit. We check it by hashing our data and appending the hash value to the data as we send it across the network to our peer. Our peer receives two values, separates ...
Get SECUR Exam Cram™ 2 (Exam 642-501) now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
