During this time when the Internet provides essential communication between literally billions of people and is used as a tool for commerce, social interaction, and the exchange of an increasing amoun

During this time when the Internet provides essential communication between literally billions of people and is used as a tool for commerce, social interaction, and the exchange of an increasing amount of personal information, security has become a tremendously important issue for every user to deal with.

There are many aspects to security and many applications, ranging from secure commerce and payments to private communications and protecting health care information. One essential aspect for secure communications is that of cryptography. But it is important to note that while cryptography is necessary for secure communications, it is not by itself sufficient. 

In your initial discussion post, please describe the hashing security mechanism and its relationship to the encryption mechanism. You are to post directly to the thread. Any discussion posted in an attachment will be disregarded.