Created in the 1970s, the CIA Triad has been used for decades to keep an organization’s data safe and secure. The CIA triad stands for confidentiality, integrity, and availability. These three components are declared to be the foundation of information security.
CIA Triad
Almost every business or organization has security measures put in place to ensure that everything runs smoothly. The CIA triad is the foundation of the majority of these security systems. Confidentiality, integrity, and availability make up the triangle. The framework’s ultimate goal is to aid organizations in defending themselves from malware, security breaches, phishing, leaks, and more (Unitrends, 2021).
Confidentiality
In this context, confidentiality refers to the desire to protect private information. For large businesses such as banks, hospitals, and schools this could be considered as the most important principle of the CIA triad. This private information can include things such as social security numbers, payment information, medical records, phone numbers and so much more. Confidentiality is the first step to security for an organization. It consists of taking the necessary precautions to stop unauthorized users from accessing sensitive information (Unitrends, 2021).
There are many ways to ensure that confidential information stays private. The most common examples of this are requiring usernames and passwords when logging into an online account. Data encryption is another common example of this. Data encryption is a security method used to prevent information from being accessed by changing it into an unreadable code. More organizations are beginning to use 2-factor authentication to protect information (Chai, 2023).
Integrity
Integrity ensures that data remains accurate, reliable, and consistent. For any organization, it is important that all data is correct and no components are altered. This flows into reliability. In order for data to be seen as reliable, the information must be correct. If any information is altered, then nothing will be reliable. To ensure reliability, it is crucial for data to be protected so no one can access sensitive information and change it. Consistency is ensuring that data accessed at two different points in time remains the same.
Common methods to ensure integrity include user access controls, data validation, and file permissions (Chai, 2023). User access controls will limit data based on a user’s purpose, role, and identity. File permissions are when files are monitored to make sure that confidential information is not tampered with. This also helps prevent data breaches. Data validation checks for errors in data before it is used.
Availability
Availability ensures that information and data are accessible to authorized users when needed. This means that all networks and systems need to constantly be running to guarantee that users obtain information when needed. This is especially important in the business world to make sure that there are no interruptions during meetings and other events. A system’s availability can be influenced by several factors including cyberattacks, human error, and software failure (Unitrends, 2021).
Common ways to ensure the availability of systems include maintaining hardware and software and quickly repairing problems as they arrive. Many organizations have a team on standby to fix any issues that may arise at any given moment to provide easy availability to users.
Authentication vs. Authorization
Authentication and authorization are two very important factors when discussing security and it is crucial to know the difference between them. Authorization is determining what a user is allowed access to. Authentication is verifying a user’s identity. An example of authorization is airport security. When boarding a flight, you must present a ticket in order to be let on. Your ticket authorizes you to board the plane (Auth0, 2024). An example of authentication is facial recognition. Many modern cell phones use facial recognition to verify a user’s identity. If your face matches, you are let into the phone, and vice versa if your face does not match.
Conclusion
To sum it up, the CIA triad is a fundamental model used by many organizations to provide security. Throughout its years of existence, the model has helped to prevent cyber attacks and maintain security. The three principles, confidentiality, integrity, and availability have been the stepping stones to ensuring accessibility, accuracy, and privacy. Many experts feel that the CIA triad needs to be modified to continue to be seen as useful as the risks of security breaches are becoming more prevalent (ShardSecure, 2023). It is to be hoped that with the rising use of AI, the CIA triad will be updated to better fit the needs of current society.
References
Auth0. “What Is Authorization? – Examples and Definition.” Auth0, auth0.com/intro-to-iam/what-is-authorization.
Chai, W. (2023, February). What is the CIA Triad? Definition, Explanation and Examples. TechTarget; TechTarget. https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/Confidentiality-integrity-and-availability-CIA
ShardSecure. “Updating the CIA Triad for Today’s Threat Landscape.” Shardsecure.com, 14 July 2023, shardsecure.com/blog/updating-cia-triad.
Shea, S., & Irei, A. (2022, August 11). Data security guide: Everything you need to know. SearchSecurity. https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/Data-security-guide-Everything-you-need-to-know
Unitrends. (2021, May 6). The CIA Triad and Its Importance in Data Security. Unitrends. https://www.unitrends.com/blog/cia-triad-confidentiality-integrity-availability