Information Security is held up by the pillars of the CIA Triad: Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability. These principles allow data to be properly accurate, confident, and available to authorized users. Authentication and authorization play a critical role by supporting these principles by ensuring that data is accessed by authorized users by providing required credentials to verify their identity. The CIA Triad is the foundation principles of information security. Confidentiality, integrity, and availability are the principles that most frameworks and policies are designed upon.

With the inevitable increasing reliance on technology, information security has become a vital necessity to ensure that data is protected. One of the primary purposes of information security is to provide protection for development, deployment, and maintenance of systems, applications and networks that fall under information technology. Information security protects data, systems, and networks, preventing unauthorized access, disruptions, damages, misuse, and reputable ruins. Protecting data prevents sensitive information from being stolen or misused. Sensitive information can often include personal information, business information, medical information, financial records, and business partners. If data isn’t properly protected, not only can companies face lawsuits, but they can also ruin their reputation.  Authorization and authentication ensure that users are accessing authorized data by allowing them to authenticate their identities.

Confidentiality protects sensitive information by ensuring that the proper protections are in place preventing hackers, unauthorized employees, unauthorized outsiders from viewing data.

Confidentiality ensures that certain data is accessible to authorized individuals and protected from unauthorized disclosure to reduce confidential information from be the risk of identity theft fraud and corporate espionage. In government related work, maintaining confidentiality is critical because protecting information from foreign nationals ensure that our homeland is protected, and personnel are protected and prevented from being held hostage for the sake of obtaining confidential information. 

Integrity means that data remains accurate and unaltered unless approved and changed by authorized users. If information is inaccurate, it can lead to a host of issues such as legal, financial, or medical issues.  The risk that can result in integrity being disrupted can include data being compromised, manipulated, and corrupted.

Even if data maintains its confidentiality and integrity, it is useless if it is inaccessible.  (Fortinet, n.d.). Businesses rely on continuous access to operate efficiently. If systems are down, productivity and revenue can suffer. Financial institutions must ensure that not only the data stays confidential and accurate but that’s its available to appropriate customers. If their system crashes and information isn’t available, people’s day to day lives and potential future may be affected.

A user’s identity is verified through an authentication process. Most sites require a user to authenticated by a password, while some sites require layered protection in the form of multi factor authentication. Authorization allows a user to access certain information.

For an example, while performing work on submarines, I was required to access area maps. The maps I was authorized to access I could but other area maps that contained confidential information beyond my need to know required a different permission (Fortinet, n.d.).

In conclusion, the foundation of cybersecurity is built upon the principles of the CIA triad. The principles of the CIA triad ensures data accuracy, privacy, and accessibility. Authentication and authorization are the ways to ensure that the CIA principles are maintained. To ensure that organizations are protected, they must ensure that the proper security measures are implemented because if one of the principles are missing the whole organization may encounter risk.

References

Fortinet. (n.d.). Authentication vs. authorization: Key differences. Fortinet. https://www.fortinet.com/resources/cyberglossary/authentication-vs-authorization

Fortinet. (n.d.). CIA triad. Fortinet. https://www.fortinet.com/resources/cyberglossary/cia-triad