The CIA triad is a conceptual design that was adopted decades ago. The goal of this design was to be the basis of cybersecurity. Even till this day the CIA triad is still highly regarded and being used by many corporations and governments.

CIA Triad

The CIA triad is something everyone who is in the cybersecurity field should study and know. It provides you an overall understanding of the basic responsibility when practicing cybersecurity. After grasping all the concepts of the CIA triad, you will be able to find vulnerabilities and methods for solving and creating solutions for all the problems that being part of the cybersecurity field will provide.

CIA Triad Origin

The CIA triad was developed in the late 1970s. Although there is no proof that it was created by a single individual, the first ideas of this concepts were first being used by the government. Confidentiality may have first been proposed as early as 1976 in a study by the U.S. Air Force (Chai, 2022). Overtime more principles was added to these concepts and eventually it resulted in the creation of the CIA triad which stands for Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability. As the use of technology became more employed by businesses, so did the CIA triad. Currently the CIA triad has been adopted into every business to help resolve all their cybersecurity issues.

Concepts of CIA Triad

Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability are the three key concepts of the CIA triad. These three concepts are all entities of their own but if used together, they came become a powerful force in understand and solving many of the problems within the cybersecurity industry. Confidentiality represents all the efforts of a business to prevent their data from being access by unauthorized personnel. Confidentiality can be practiced through authentication and authorization. Authentication is a way to confirm your identity using usernames and passwords on the system and authorization gives you access to the entire system after various forms of validation using security access tokens. The second concept is integrity. Integrity focuses more on the interpretation and implementation of data. The data you provide must always be trustworthy and accurate. For example, if your company provides information about senior managers on your website, this information needs to have integrity. If it is inaccurate, those visiting the website for information may feel your organization is not trustworthy (“What is the CIA triad,” n.d.) The third concept is Availability. Availability is the maintenance of all the hardware and software that your business is using. It is very important in preventing any operating system failures. Machines are not perfect and must be kept healthy and up to date, to function properly. In order to be prepare for any cybersecurity problem concerning your business all these concepts must be followed.

Conclusion

We all desire a perfect world where machines never fail and always function properly, but that ideal world will always be threating by cybercriminals. No matter how optimal the design and processing systems are, these criminals will always find a way to corrupt it. The one thing that you can always depend on to aid you in these types of situations is the CIA triad. The model and principles of the CIA triad was developed and perfected over many years to help prevent any cybercrimes. Although the CIA triad is a great assistance, it is not just a one and done type of thing. You must dedicate yourself whole heartily to its teachings for it to have any beneficial effects. Remember, implementing the triad isn’t a matter of buying certain tools; the triad is a way of thinking, planning, and, perhaps most importantly, setting priorities (Fruhlinger,2020).