Materials are obscured or encrypted using cryptography so that they can be reliably deciphered by the recipient of the communication. In cybersecurity, the term “cryptography” refers to secure information and communication methods that use computational techniques and computational systems that follow regulations or “algorithms” to change communications into an unreadable form. These predictable algorithms are used to create encryption keys, digital signatures, online advertising, and private conversations such as email and card payments. Information at rest and in transit may be encrypted to ensure its integrity. In addition, rejection can be prevented and senders and recipients can be cross-verified. Integrity protection provided by cryptographic algorithms such as Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS) can help protect information from malicious monitoring and modification. Authenticity guarantees ensure that users can operate their devices as expected.

Integrity exists if the data cannot be changed during storage or transmission between the originator and the intended recipient without notification of the change. Authentication or authenticity is when both the sender and the recipient can verify the identity of the other and the source and destination of the data. Integrity ensures that no part of the information exchanged between different websites has changed. For example, a hash is generated and applied to the packet. Hashing methods such as Message Digest (MD5) and Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA) can be used. Keyed hashing in message authentication is used to ensure that no one can change the hash. The term refers to Hashed Message Authentication Code (HMAC). The main difference between Hash and HMAC is that in addition to the data being encrypted, it adds a private password used by both sides for the computation process.