Which approach helps ensure the integrity of financial statements before sending to the accountant?

• A. Hash the document to verify integrity
• B. Encrypt the document with a public key
• C. Sign the document digitally
• D. Store in a secure server

Answer: (A)

Ensuring data integrity means being able to detect any change to the document after it’s created. Hashing the document produces a fixed-size fingerprint that uniquely represents its contents. If you compute the hash before sending and share or store that hash alongside the file, the recipient can recompute the hash on receipt and compare it to the original. If the hashes match, the file hasn’t been altered; if they differ, tampering or corruption is detected. This approach is fast, lightweight, and directly serves the goal of verifying that the financial statements remain unchanged during transmission.

Encryption with a public key protects confidentiality, not integrity by itself. Storing in a secure server helps protect the file at rest but doesn’t provide a straightforward, end-to-end check that the document wasn’t modified in transit. A digital signature would also guarantee integrity and non-repudiation, but hashing alone is the simplest and most direct method to verify that the content remains intact before the accountant reviews it.