Hashing explained: Why it's your best bet to protect stored passwords

What is hashing?

Hashing is a cryptographic process that can be used to validate the authenticity and integrity of various types of input. It is widely used in authentication systems to avoid storing plaintext passwords in databases, but is also used to validate files, documents and other types of data. Incorrect use of hashing functions can lead to serious data breaches, but not using hashing to secure sensitive data in the first place is even worse.