What is the CIA Triad?
What is the CIA Triad? The Cia Triad is a foundational idea involved with information security that represents a set of core principles essential for safeguarding information systems and data. The triad consists of three key elements: Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability, each addressing a critical aspect of information protection.

The Concepts
The CIA Triad is divided into three core principles, each focusing on a critical aspect of information security:
Confidentiality:
Definition: A core principle of information security aimed at ensuring that sensitive or private information is accessible only to those individuals or systems that have been explicitly authorized to view or use it. Its primary goal is to safeguard data from unauthorized access, disclosure, or exposure, thereby protecting the privacy and security of the information.
Purpose: The purpose of confidentiality is to safeguard sensitive or private information from unauthorized access and exposure. By ensuring that only authorized individuals or systems can access or use the data
Example: An example of confidentiality in practice is a company employing encryption to safeguard sensitive customer information, such as credit card details, during transmission over the internet.
Integrity:
Definition: The principle of preserving the accuracy, consistency, and reliability of data throughout its entire lifecycle. It ensures that information remains unaltered and free from tampering by unauthorized individuals, processes, or systems. The aim of integrity is to maintain the correctness and trustworthiness of data, ensuring it stays true to its original form and accurately represents the intended information.
Purpose: The purpose of integrity is to guarantee that data remains accurate, consistent, and reliable throughout its entire lifecycle. By maintaining the correctness and trustworthiness of information,
Example: A financial institution using cryptographic hash functions to verify the integrity of transaction records.
Availability:
Definition: A fundamental principle of information security, ensures that information and resources are accessible to authorized users whenever required. It focuses on minimizing downtime and keeping systems, applications, and data operational and accessible despite failures, disruptions, or attacks.
Purpose:To guarantee that information and resources are consistently accessible to authorized users whenever required
Example: An example of availability in practice is a cloud-based email service provider implementing redundant servers and data centers.
Understanding Authentication vs. Authorization
What is authentication?
Authentication is the process of confirming the identity of a user, system, or entity to verify that they are who they claim to be. It is a vital component of security mechanisms, as it establishes the legitimacy of the entity seeking access to a system or resource.
Purpose:Authentication confirms that an entity is who it claims to be before granting access to systems, applications, or data. This ensures that only authorized individuals or systems can gain entry or interact with sensitive resources.
Example: An example of authentication in action is the process of logging into an online banking account.

What is Authorization?
Authorization is the process of defining what an authenticated user or system is permitted to do once their identity has been confirmed. It involves establishing and enforcing permissions or access controls that determine which actions or resources a user or system can access within a specific environment.
Purpose: is to control and manage access to resources and actions based on the identity and permissions of users or systems.
Example: An example of authorization in action can be seen in a company’s internal file-sharing system.


Summary of Differences
Authentication vs. Authorization
Purpose:
Authentication: Verifies the identity of a user or system.
Authorization: Determines what an authenticated user or system is allowed to do.
Example:
Authentication: Logging into an account with a username and password.
Authorization: Granting access to certain features based on the user’s role (e.g., admin vs. standard user).