A dust storm is a meteorological phenomenon common in arid and semi-arid regions. Dust storms arise when a gust front or other strong wind blows loose sand and dirt from a dry surface. Particles are transported by saltation and suspension, a process that moves soil from one place and deposits it in another.

The SANDstorm hash is a cryptographic hash function designed in 2008 by Mark Torgerson, Richard Schroeppel, Tim Draelos, Nathan Dautenhahn, Sean Malone, Andrea Walker, Michael Collins, and Hilarie Orman for the NIST SHA-3 competition.