Hashes

A hash is a cryptographically generated string of letters and numbers that is generated from a digital resource. The hash cannot be reverse engineered to identify the source of the information, but it can be used to verify that the source information has not changed and can be trusted.

Hashes are often used to verify software hasn't been tampered with. The hash is generated from the software files, and any change to those files would result in a different hash. When a user downloads software from the internet, they can generate a hash from the files they've download and compare the hash they've generated with the hash provided on the download website. If the two hashes are different, the user knows the software has changed.

We use hashes in a similar way to provide proof user identity documents have not changed since we verified them.

Learn more about digital identities.