Which standard is listed as an integrity standard in the material?

• A. FIPS 180-3 Secure Hash Standard
• B. FIPS 186-3 Digital Signature Standard
• C. FIPS 198-1 HMAC
• D. FIPS 140-2

Answer: (A)

Integrity is about detecting any alteration to data. Hash functions give you a fixed-size digest that changes with any modification, so you can verify integrity by recalculating the hash and comparing it to a known value. The Secure Hash Standard defines the hash algorithms used for this purpose (the SHA family), making it the standard that directly supports integrity verification. The other standards serve related roles but not the same explicit integrity standard: Digital Signature Standard deals with public-key signatures for authenticity and non-repudiation; HMAC provides a keyed message authentication code (a mechanism for both integrity and authentication); and FIPS 140-2 governs secure cryptographic modules in general.