The CIA Triad

Max Amici

9/21/2021

The CIA triad is a security model used for information that can help organizations keep their data secure. The letters in CIA stand for confidentiality, integrity, and availability. It is helpful to think of the triad as a way to make sense of the wide array of security software, services, and techniques that are in the marketplace (Fruhlinger, 2020, p.2).

An example of confidentiality would be making use of two-factor authentication, like how on certain websites you are required to use a username and password as one factor, and then they send a unique code to the phone number assigned as the second factor. The two big A’s of confidentiality are authentication and authorization which are different aspects in their own right. Authentication determines if the person trying to access data is who they say they are while authorization is determining what data will be available to be viewed once their identity has been authenticated. An example of physical confidentiality would be a literal lock which has a key to be used when the data is trying to be accessed.

Integrity means that data cannot be modified maliciously or accidentally under any circumstances. Integrity is also a factor of the triad that can be protected in the same ways but is not limited to the same ways confidentiality is protected. This is because as long as the data cannot be accessed, it cannot be altered either. Data can be corrupted by outside sources other than malicious hackers such as cosmic rays allowing corruption to leak into the RAM (Fruhlinger, p.3). Ways that help you protect against breaches can be systems that detect when data has been altered one way or another and ways to restore that info that had been lost as well.

Availability tends to be less related to the field of cybersecurity. The best thing you can do is make sure your servers are running smoothly as well as keep your hardware updated and be able to use them at any time when needed.

References

Fruhlinger, J., (2020). The CIA Triad: Definitions, components, and examples. p. 1-5