An engineer is securing access to data served by a cloud-based application.

The weak element is MD5, an obsolete hash with practical collision weaknesses, so it should be replaced with a modern integrity algorithm. SHA-512 is a SHA-2 family hash and provides strong integrity validation; therefore, option C is correct. AES-256 remains a strong confidentiality algorithm, and TLS 1.3 with properly validated signed certificates provides current transport security and authentication. Replacing AES with 3DES would reduce security and introduce a legacy cipher. Replacing TLS 1.3 with DES is technically mismatched because TLS is a protocol while DES is an obsolete cipher. SSLv3 is deprecated and would also weaken the design. Cisco’s Next Generation Cryptography recommendations classify MD5 for integrity as “Avoid” and SHA-256, SHA-384, and SHA-512 as next-generation choices. Cisco’s cryptographic recommendations directly support replacing MD5 with SHA-512.