What happened to the hash value when the document experienced the one-character change?

Learning Goal: I’m working on a public service multi-part question and need an explanation and answer to help me learn.

• Download a free hash tool such as HashMyFiles or HashTool or you could use the command line interface. If you must use a Mac, try iHash or Hashmaker from the Apple App Store.
• Create a Microsoft Word file. Type the word dog. Save the file as dog.docx to your Desktop.
• Using one of the hashing tools, hash the file dog.docx with your choice of MD5 or SHA-256. Save the hash value to a separate document or text file.
• Open the file dog.docx and change the word dog to dogs. In other words, you are simply adding an “s” on to the end of the word “dog.” Click Save.
• Using one of the hashing tools, hash the file dog.docx again with your choice of MD5 or SHA-256. Save the hash value to a separate document or text file.

After doing the above, answer/do the following questions/prompts:

• Submit the hash values from each version of the document created.

1. What happened to the hash value when the document experienced the one-character change?
2. Discuss, depth, two functions of hashing. Why are these functions important and what value can they potentially bring to a criminal case?
3. Discuss the importance of integrity verification and how hashing helps in this initiative.
4. How does the hash value provide integrity for an image or forensic copy? Specifically discuss how this could be valuable for digital evidence by providing examples.
5. Explain why validation of hashing tools becomes important, and how the validation is different between the use of two different tools.