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Security Beginner

What is Hashing?

A one-way function that converts input data into a fixed-size string of characters, used for data integrity and password storage.

Hash functions produce a unique, fixed-length digest from any input. Unlike encryption, hashing is irreversible — you cannot recover the original data from the hash. Any change in input produces a completely different hash.

Uses include password storage (bcrypt, Argon2), file integrity verification (SHA-256), digital signatures, and data deduplication. Never use MD5 or SHA-1 for security — they are considered broken.

Related Terms

Secret Management
The practice of securely storing, accessing, and rotating sensitive credentials like API keys, passwords, and certificates.
DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service)
An attack that floods a target server or network with traffic from multiple sources to overwhelm it and deny service to legitimate users.
Brute Force Attack
An attack method that systematically tries all possible combinations of passwords or keys until the correct one is found.
SIEM (Security Information and Event Management)
A platform that collects, correlates, and analyzes security events from across an organization to detect threats and incidents.
Input Validation
The process of verifying that user-supplied data meets expected formats, types, and ranges before processing it.
Supply Chain Attack
A cyberattack that targets less-secure elements in the software supply chain to compromise downstream users and organizations.
 View All Security Terms →