Checksum

A checksum is a small-sized block of data derived from a larger block of data, used to detect errors that may have occurred during transmission or storage. By recalculating the checksum and comparing it to the original, accidental changes or corruption can be identified.

Common checksum algorithms include CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check), MD5, and SHA-1, although MD5 and SHA-1 are hash functions that can also serve as checksums.