HMAC-SHA256 versus GCM

[Jörg Weske]

Hi Guus,

 > Unfortunately, all the fast hash algorithms are also the
 > cryptographically weak ones.

Did you, by any chance, have a look at the SipHash algorithm that was 
published in 2012?

https://131002.net/siphash/

Some claims:

SipHash is secure, fast, and simple (for real):
* SipHash is simpler and faster than previous cryptographic algorithms
* SipHash is competitive in performance with insecure non-cryptographic 
algorithms

I've only recently started using the JAVA implementation in a software 
project for hashing content (no cryptographical use, though). It fits my 
requirements nicely: it's pretty fast and has a very low probability of 
collisions.


-- 
Best regards,
Jörg