Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
the. data. in. any. way.. These. are. called.
write. blockers
,. and.
they.can.be.speciic.hardware.devices.that.connect.between.
a. computer. or. other. storage. and. the. storage. to. which. you.
are.copying.
There. are. also. software. applications. that. facilitate. the.
copying. of. data. in. a. way. that. ensures. the. integrity. of. the.
data,. and. can. in. some. cases. prevent. writing. to. the. copied.
device.as.well..To.do.so,.the.software.can.use.mathematical.
algorithms. called.
hashes
. to. create. a. digital. “ingerprint”. of.
the.data.before.and.after.the.copying.in.order.to.show.that.
nothing.was.changed.
Because,.as.we.discussed.in.earlier.chapters,.digital.data.
are.all.based.on.binary.mathematical.constructs,.these.algo-
rithms.are.basically.formulas.that.when.run.against.any.set.of.
digital.data.will.result.in.a.long.hexadecimal.string.of.numbers.
and.letters.(hexadecimal.math.includes.the.letters.a.through.
f;.see.Chapter.1.for.a.more.in-depth.discussion.of.digital.data.
and. the. binary. and. hexadecimal. notation).. If. you. remove. a.
space.from.between.letters,.or.add.a.period.to.the.end.of.a.
sentence.in.a.digitally.saved.document,.the.resulting.hash.will.
be.completely.different.when.that.algorithmic.formula.is.run.
against. the. storage. media. again.. This. results. in. the. perfect.
way. (well,. nearly. perfect,. as. some. hash. systems. are. more.
reliable.than.others),.to.ensure.that.the.data.you.copied.is.the.
same.when.you.need.to.use.it.as.it.was.when.you.acquired.it.
Because. this. provable. integrity. of. the. data. may. be. very.
important. to. the. owners. and. custodians. of. the. information.
you. require,. your. ability. to. show. that. you. understand. the.
requirements.and.have.the.tools.to.ensure.that.integrity.will.
be.paramount.
Another.important.consideration.will.be.the.necessity.to.
understand.the.business.requirements.of.the.organization.or.
entity.from.which.you.are.requesting.data..That.will.require.
that.you.take.the.time.and.do.your.research.in.order.to.truly.
understand.their.business.model.
In. the. second. more. dificult. example. above,. we. were.
looking.at.the.possible.complications.involved.in.requesting.
