What are the approved integrity standards?

• A. Digital Signature, Secure Hash, HMAC
• B. AES, DES
• C. MD5, CRC
• D. RSA, ECC

Answer: (A)

To ensure data integrity, you rely on mechanisms that can prove the data hasn’t been altered and, in some cases, who originated it. Digital signatures, secure hash functions, and HMAC together cover these needs: a secure hash (like SHA-256) creates a fixed-size digest that changes if any bit of the data changes, so you can detect tampering; a digital signature signs data with a private key so recipients can verify both the integrity and the origin of the data using a public key, providing non-repudiation; and HMAC combines a secret key with a hash to produce a message authentication code that verifies integrity and authenticity between trusted parties. These are considered approved integrity standards because they provide cryptographic guarantees about data integrity and, in the case of signatures and HMAC, authenticity as well.

Encryption algorithms like AES or DES are intended for confidentiality, not integrity. Hashes like MD5 are outdated or insecure due to collision weaknesses. CRC is a fast error-detection code used for random error checking, not cryptographically secure integrity. Public-key algorithms such as RSA or ECC are powerful tools for signatures or encryption themselves but aren’t by themselves the standard set used to ensure integrity; they’re part of the broader toolbox used to implement signatures or encrypted channels.