Data provenance and integrity
When working with any kind of data, two often-overlooked questions should be considered:
- Does the data come from a reliable source?
- Does the data contain all of the contents that you expected it to?
The first question relates to the topic of data provenance. Data provenance is about determining the origin of data and determining where the data originated from.
The second question refers to the topic of data integrity. Data integrity is about determining whether the contents you received from a remote location represents what you expected to receive. It helps determine whether data was tampered with as it was sent across the wire.
Both data provenance and data integrity can be verified using a concept called digital signatures. An author can create a unique signature based on cryptography to sign data, and the consumer of that data can use cryptographic tools to verify the authenticity of that signature. If the authenticity is verified...
