A checksum is a value that is used to verify the integrity of data. It’s like a digital fingerprint for a piece of data, such as a file or a message. When data is sent from one place to another, a checksum is generated by running the data through a specific algorithm. This checksum is sent along with the data.
Upon arrival, the receiving party can generate a checksum of the received data and compare it to the sent checksum. If the two values match, the data is considered intact and unaltered. If they don’t match, it indicates that the data may have been corrupted or tampered with during transmission.