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  • Essay / Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability (CIA Triad)

    Table of ContentsConfidentialityIntegrityAvailabilityConfidentiality, Integrity, and Availability, also known as the CIA Triad, is a model designed to guide information security policies within 'an organization. The model is also sometimes called the AIC (availability, integrity, and confidentiality) triad to avoid confusion with the Central Intelligence Agency. The elements of the triad are considered the three most crucial components of security. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get an original essayIn this context, confidentiality is a set of rules that limit access to information, integrity is assurance that the information is trustworthy and accurate, and availability is a guarantee of reliable access to the information by authorized persons. Confidentiality Confidentiality is roughly equivalent to privacy. Privacy measures aim to prevent sensitive information from reaching the wrong people, while ensuring that the right people can actually get it: access should be restricted to those authorized to view the data in question. It is also common for data to be classified based on the extent and type of damage that could be caused if it fell into unwitting hands. More or less strict measures can then be implemented according to these categories. Sometimes safeguarding data confidentiality may require special training for those with access to these documents. Such training would typically include security risks that could threaten this information. Training can help familiarize authorized persons with risk factors and how to protect against them. Other aspects of training may include strong passwords and password-related best practices, as well as information on social engineering methods, to prevent them from circumventing data processing rules with good intentions and potentially disastrous results. A good example of methods used to ensure privacy is an account number or routing number when banking online. Data encryption is a common method to ensure confidentiality. User IDs and passwords are standard procedure; two-factor authentication is becoming the norm. Other options include biometric verification and security tokens, key fobs or software tokens. Additionally, users can take precautions to minimize the number of places information appears and the number of times it is actually transmitted to complete a required transaction. Additional measures may be taken in the case of extremely sensitive documents, precautions such as storing only on isolated computers, disconnected storage devices or, for very sensitive information, in hard copy form only. Integrity Integrity involves maintaining the consistency, accuracy and reliability of documents. data throughout its life cycle. Data must not be modified in transit and measures must be taken to ensure that data cannot be modified by unauthorized persons (e.g. in the event of a breach of confidentiality). These measures include file permissions and user access controls. Version control can be used to prevent erroneous changes or deletion.