A hash value refers to an alphanumeric string that can be used to identify a single digital file. It is also known as a fingerprint of data which helps to prove the authenticity and integrity of crucial information in computer forensics. It plays a significant role in the court of law because it is a useful tool in providing forensic electronic evidence that holds the determining factors in deciding the fate of a given case (Reith et al., 2002). The hash value is associated with various policies that play an important role in sustaining data provided by computer forensics. These policies include its uniqueness and standards as well as the hashing algorithm that helps to defend the integrity evidence.
Digital forensics rely heavily on hash values such as MD5 and SHA as proposed by, Rivest (1990) to verify data and ensure that is has not been altered or corrupted. Such measures are undertaken due to various reasons such as the possible impact on an individuals’ personal life in any ongoing investigations or the verification of the correct procedure put into place to handle the case. Therefore, it ensures that the evidence is handled with the utmost security as it is very crucial to the parties involved.
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Slight changes in the content of a file are expected to change and produce an entirely different hash value for the given digital file. However, it is also possible for a hash value to remain constant despite making any small changes in a given file. This is because hash values are calculated as per the basis of the content within the file, hence changes made to the file will produce a new hash value (Hong et al., 2006). Contrary to that, a digital file’s hash value may not change if viewed from read only media.
References
Hong, D., Chang, D., Sung, J., Lee, S., Hong, S., Lee, J., ... & Chee, S. (2006). A new dedicated 256-bit hash function: FORK-256. In International Workshop on Fast Software Encryption (pp. 195-209). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. of the file. Changes to t
Reith, M., Carr, C. & Gunsch, G. (2002). An examination of digital forensic models, International Journal of Digital Evidence, 1, pp.1- 12.
Rivest, R. (1992). The MD5 message-digest algorithm , IETF RFC 1321. Retrieved from: www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1321.txt bas
