Crossword clues for checksum
Wiktionary
n. a number, derived by applying a suitable algorithm to some data, used to check whether errors have occurred in transmission, storage or data entry vb. To compute a checksum.
WordNet
n. a digit representing the sum of the digits in an instance of digital data; used to check whether errors have occurred in transmission or storage
Wikipedia
A checksum is a small-size datum from a block of digital data for the purpose of detecting errors which may have been introduced during its transmission or storage. It is usually applied to an installation file after it is received from the download server. By themselves checksums are often used to verify data integrity, but should not be relied upon to also verify data authenticity.
The actual procedure which yields the checksum, given a data input is called a checksum function or checksum algorithm. Depending on its design goals, a good checksum algorithm will usually output a significantly different value, even for small changes made to the input. This is especially true of cryptographic hash functions, which may be used to detect many data corruption errors and verify overall data integrity; if the computed checksum for the current data input matches the stored value of a previously computed checksum, there is a very high probability the data has not been accidentally altered or corrupted.
Checksum functions are related to hash functions, fingerprints, randomization functions, and cryptographic hash functions. However, each of those concepts has different applications and therefore different design goals. For instance a function returning the start of a string can provide a hash appropriate for some applications but will never be a suitable checksum. Checksums are used as cryptographic primitives in larger authentication algorithms. For cryptographic systems with these two specific design goals, see HMAC.
Check digits and parity bits are special cases of checksums, appropriate for small blocks of data (such as Social Security numbers, bank account numbers, computer words, single bytes, etc.). Some error-correcting codes are based on special checksums which not only detect common errors but also allow the original data to be recovered in certain cases.
Usage examples of "checksum".
For reasons not worth discussing here, it is both more efficient and safer to have TCP compute a separate checksum for the TCP header and data.
When the other end receives the packet, it recomputes the checksum, and throws the packet away if the answer disagrees with the original.
It still has source and destination port numbers, and a checksum, but that's about it.
Slowly, the numbers began to change as each memory location in the electronic relay was examined, its data-correct checksum value computed, the memory location analyzed and the resident checksurn value computed.
If the two checksum values were different, it would indicate a problem in that particular memory location.
The receiving computer performs the same calculation on what should be the same data and compares its checksum with the one that has been sent.
Basically the idea was very simple: rig the packets to carry a bad checksum, which means that the receiving Soviet ground-station throws them out as garbage.
When the checksums failed to match, the receiving computer would simply assume that the message it had assembled was corrupted, disregard it, and signal for a repeat transmission.
What Colonel Raymond was saying was that the checksums for the packets containing the Tangerine file would be deliberately miscalculated.
There're going to be many sleepless engineers earning their overtime checksumming the operating system files for signs of retrovirus in fection.
He'd found that the meter and rhythm of poetry provided its own checksum, a bit like the checksums in computer data.
Back in Athena, whatever elaborate metaphoric action they'd used to instruct the communications software to halt them, append suitable explanatory headers and checksums, then turn the whole package bit-by-bit into a stream of modulated gamma rays, it could never have fully prepared them for the fact that in a subjective instant they'd be stepping ninety-seven years into the future, and ninety-seven light years from home.
No one, not even the Chows, have identical checksums, but those are the closest I have ever measured between two people.
I'm sure who ever did this included a balancing checksum to cause the bytes in the virus program to disappear.