From the course: Cybersecurity Foundations: Computer Forensics

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Understanding hashing

Understanding hashing

From the course: Cybersecurity Foundations: Computer Forensics

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Understanding hashing

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- [Instructor] Hashing plays a vital role in computer forensics. It ensures that a data copy you make remains identical to its source. Hashing refers to the process of transforming an input, which is usually a file into an output, which is a unique string associated with that file. There are some significant characteristics you should know about hashing. First, any slight changes you make in a file will get amplified in considerable changes in its hash value. This behavior makes it very easy to detect changes made to a file by accident or on purpose. Hashing ensures data integrity, meaning no intended changes are made in the data. In the context of computer forensics, this means the evidence drive remains the same during your investigation. That is, a forensic image or copy of the evidence drive stays the same. Therefore, hashing is an essential part of your computer forensics investigation. Any non-trivial computer…

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