Understanding hashing algorithms

Hashing algorithms are primarily used to validate the integrity of data, though they can also be used to prove that you know something, such as a password secret. Hashing is a one-way process (it is unfeasible to reverse a hash) and does not provide confidentiality for the data. It is important to understand that the original data is not changed in any way. Think of hashing as a way to create a unique digital checksum for a particular document, file, or data payload. Hashing is used for File Integrity Monitoring (FIM), where we can detect if a protected operating system file has been altered. Hashing can be used in digital forensics to capture a unique checksum of a copy image, to match it with the original (this is useful to do before analysts begin the forensic investigation). For security professionals, it is important to understand what would be considered strong and what would represent weak implementations of hashing algorithms. Strong or resilient...