Jamie compiles weekly income/expense reports for her family. She intends to use a hash function to integrity-protect the report's content and the date/time that each report was created.

Use two (2) separate diagrams to illustrate how she could use a hash chain (similar to the chain of blocks in Bitcoin ) and a binary Merkle Hash Tree (similar to the way Bitcoin transactions are arranged2) to record the reports' hashes. In your diagrams, indicate the hash function and the information you will use to obtain the report's hash value.

Compare the hash chain and the binary Merkle Hash Tree and choose the most suitable solution for Jamie's purpose. Explain your choice.

b) Suppose that a document is to be uploaded to a cloud drive (whose link is shared among your colleagues) to your manager. The cloud drive was incorrectly configured to allow anyone to add, remove, or edit files in it, and your manager decided to leave the configuration as is because, having knowledge about the hash function, you should know better how to protect your own work.

Explain how you would use a hash function to ensure that any (malicious) modifications of your document can be detected and how you can subsequently prove that the original report has been completed before the submission deadline.

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

Part a Using Hash Chain and Binary Merkle Hash Tree for Integrity Protection 1 Hash Chain Jamie can use a hash chain to protect the integrity of her weekly incomeexpense reports Each report in the cha... View the full answer