MAC – meet HMAC Enter the dragon that is the Message Authentication Code (MAC), and its more secure cousin the hash-based Message Authentication Code (HMAC).

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is recommending a new algorithm for authenticating digital data for federal agencies. Called CMAC (cipher-based message authentication code), ...

In many network communications it is crucial to be able to authenticate both the contents and the origin of a message. Digital signatures based on public key schemas are used for such authentication.