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How Does a Cryptographic Hash Function Ensure Data Integrity?

A cryptographic hash function ensures data integrity because it is deterministic and collision-resistant. Deterministic means the same input always produces the same hash.

Collision-resistant means it is computationally infeasible to find two different inputs that produce the same hash. Therefore, if a single bit of data is tampered with, the resulting hash will change entirely, immediately alerting anyone verifying the data that the original content has been altered.

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