What technique is used to ensure data integrity in transit?

Hashing is a technique used to ensure data integrity in transit by creating a fixed-size string of characters from input data, regardless of its size. This string, often referred to as a hash value or checksum, is generated through a specific algorithm that produces a unique value for different sets of input data.

When data is sent over a network, the sender can compute the hash of the original data and send both the data and the hash value to the receiver. Upon receipt, the receiver will compute the hash of the received data and compare it to the hash value sent by the sender. If both hash values match, it indicates that the data has not been altered during transit, thereby ensuring its integrity. This process does not obscure the data but confirms its authenticity and completeness.

Other techniques serve different purposes; for example, encryption primarily protects confidentiality by transforming data into an unreadable format for unauthorized users, while tokenization replaces sensitive data with non-sensitive equivalents to minimize exposure to risk. Decryption is the reverse of encryption, aiming to restore the readable form of encrypted data, but it does not verify data integrity.