The CIA triad, standing for Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability, is a model used to design information security policies. These three elements are considered to be the foundation to any good information security policy. Organizations can maintain safe and resilient systems by adhering to these three concepts as they design their data security program.

Confidentiality refers to the ability to ensure that data is accessible only to those who need access to it. Confidentiality is ensured by implementing the appropriate authentication controls. Authentication is the process of validating that someone is who they claim to be. (Boston University). Encryption is another method of ensuring confidentiality. Encryption is the process of transforming data so that it is unreadable to anyone who is unable to decrypt it (Boston University). Implementing these measures should serve as the basis for maintaining the confidentiality of information stored on a system.

Integrity is the process of guaranteeing the accuracy of data. By enforcing strict data integrity, cybersecurity professionals can validate that data has not been changed by an unauthorized person. One way to maintain integrity is to apply rigorous authorization controls. Authorization is the level of access granted to the individual user, and is generally coupled with authentication to grant the correct access to that user (Boston University). Wesley Chai states that integrity may also be verified using checksums and digital signatures. Maintaining the validity of data is of the utmost importance to an organization, and can be protected by putting these safeguards into practice.

Availability is defined as ensuring that data is available to those who need to access it. Maintaining high availability may be achieved in several ways. The most basic way to ensure availability is with routine maintenance and patching of systems (Chai, 2023). These steps may seem simple, but help protect against many known vulnerabilities. More complex ways of implementing high availability include redundant servers, RAID storage, and disaster recovery plans (Chai, 2023). There are numerous means to ensure the availability of information, which can be maintained by any combination of these methods.

Data is the lifeblood of an organization, and protecting it is paramount. Cybersecurity professionals model their security policies with the CIA triad in order to protect that data. Each component of the triad is equally important. It is vitally important that steps are taken to implement policies and technologies that ensure all three cornerstones are met. In doing so, cybersecurity professionals can guarantee the safety of their organization’s data.
 
References

Boston University. (n.d.). Understanding Authentication, Authorization, and Encryption. https://www.bu.edu/tech/about/security-resources/bestpractice/auth/

Chai, W. (2023, December 21). What is the CIA triad?: Definition from TechTarget. TechTarget. https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/Confidentiality-integrity-and-availability-CIA