When you buy through affiliate links in our content, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Learn What Does Fingerprint Mean?
A fingerprint in hash cryptography is a short key that helps to identify a longer public key. Fingerprints are used for key authentication and other elements of cryptography security, providing efficiency with smaller data sets.
Techopedia Explains Fingerprint
When fingerprints are used for key authentication, systems can check these smaller data sets more easily in order to make sure that they are accessing the correct public key. Fingerprints are also more efficient for storage. Security certificate systems may manually perform key authentication to promote best security practices. Fingerprints are important in public-key cryptography and other modern types of digital security. They help to refine the ways that cryptography works in modern systems, where streamlining data sets is essential.
