Many people don’t trust algorithms and machine learning because they don’t have a complete understanding of how they actually work. Let's break it down.

A cryptographic hash function is a mathematical algorithm that takes an input (or 'message') and returns a fixed-length string of characters ...

Thus, the password maverick becomes 55f9c405bd87ba23896f34011ffce8da. As a further safeguard, the hashing algorithms work in only one direction. By design, you can’t un-hash a hashed password.

A UK controversy about school leavers’ marks shows algorithms can get things wrong. To ensure algorithms are as fair as possible, how they work and the trade-offs involved must be made clear.

In this chapter we will look at choosing and optimizing cryptographic algorithms, particularly for resource-constrained systems, such as embedded systems.