What is The CIA Triad?

The CIA Triad became well known in 1988 for organizations as a model that forms a foundation for developing security systems. It is essential because it helps organizations comply with regulations and ensures business continuity. The CIA Triad is also known as the AIC Triad, so it does not get confused with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). In this context, CIA stands for confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

The Breakdown

Confidentiality, integrity, and availability are three fundamentals necessary for the cybersecurity
field. Confidentiality is necessary to keep software, files, documents, and other essential items
private and secret. Integrity ensures employees and data are honest, consistent, and accurate.
Lastly, availability means all data and information are consistently accessible. There are two
more principles as well: authentication and authorization. These interlink with the other three
fundamentals by having confidential data that only certain people have authorization to.
Authentication helps with integrity by only letting certain people access specific data.

Authorization VS. Authentication

Authorization and authentication are different. Authentication is the process of proving
something or someone to be true or valid. While authorization is the applications or data, a
person has access to.

Real Life Example

To give these principles real meaning, imagine you are trying to log into your Canvas account.
You first have to enter your username and password to access your account. Then, to maintain confidentiality, you must use the two-factor authentication, which would be Duo mobile in this
example. Once you complete those steps, Duo Mobile will let you into your authorized account.
Availability in this example would be how the two-factor system is conveniently on your device
with a personalized token; it ensures the integrity of the user logging into the account to prevent
the possibility of the account getting hacked.

In Conclusion

As expressed, confidentiality, integrity, ability, authorization, and authentication are five
cybersecurity fundamentals. These fundamentals keep cybersecurity honest, private, secure,
consistent, and accessible. Confidentiality, integrity, ability, authorization, and authentication are
used in our lives constantly.

References
What is the CIA triad and why is it important?. Fortinet. (n.d.).
https://www.fortinet.com/resources/cyberglossary/cia-triad#:~:text=The%20three%20letters%20i
n%20%22CIA,and%20methods%20for%20creating%20solutions.