CIA Triad in Cybersecurity

Confidentiality: Protecting the secrecy of data.

Integrity: Protecting data from unauthorised changes.

Availability: Ensuring data and systems are available to those who need them when they need them.

Confidentiality

The term “confidentiality” in the CIA Triad in Cybersecurity refers to an organization’s attempts to safeguard sensitive information. This can be achieved by limiting who can gain access to specific files in order to stop the purposeful or unintentional spread of sensitive information within cybersecurity. Making sure that only authorised individuals have access to sensitive company data is crucial to protecting its privacy. On the other hand, a reliable system guarantees that those who require access are granted it.

Those who deal with the money flow of a business, for instance, need access to financial records like spreadsheets and bank statements. However, it’s possible that the vast majority of staff members, and possibly certain executives, won’t be permitted access. There must be rigorous controls in place to limit who can view what in order to make sure these policies are followed.

Many different methods exist by which privacy could be broken. This could include attempts at unauthorised access to protected systems by means of more direct means of assault. Direct attempts by an attacker to access and manipulate data within an application or database also fall under this cybersecurity category.

These direct assaults could make use of man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks, in which a hacker inserts oneself between two communicating parties in order to steal or modify information. In order to get credentials, some hackers will also resort to various forms of network espionage. Attackers will sometimes try to escalate their privileges in the system in order to acquire access to more sensitive data.

It’s important to note that not all instances of disclosure are malicious. It’s also possible that a human factor or a lack of cybersecurity measures is to blame. An individual may, for instance, forget to safeguard the password they use to access their workplace or any other secure location. It’s possible for users to compromise cybersecurity by revealing their login information to others or sharing their credentials with them. A user’s failure to adequately encrypt a communication leaves it vulnerable to interception by an adversary. Theft of hardware, such as a complete computer or login device, also presents a risk of unauthorised access to data.

Data breaches can be prevented through the implementation of cybersecurity safeguards such as access control regulations, encryption, and multi-factor authentication (MFA). It is also wise to make sure everyone in the company is aware of the risks and has the skills to prevent them.

Integrity

Integrity means your information is unaltered and reliable in the CIA Triad in Cybersecurity. Only genuine, accurate, and trustworthy information can protect the confidentiality of your digital assets.

For instance, if your company lists senior management on its website, that listing must be accurate. Users who are seeking information may acquire a negative impression of your company if they see misleading or false information on your website. Someone with malicious intent could try to hack your company’s website in order to harm the company’s or executives’ reputations by changing their profiles, photos, or titles.

It is usually on purpose when someone compromises their honesty. An attacker can cover their tracks by disabling intrusion detection systems (IDS), rearranging file permissions to gain access, or tampering with the system’s logs. Integrity might be compromised inadvertently as well. It’s possible that a careless user will enter the erroneous code or make some other blunder. Integrity can also be compromised if the corporation has poor cybersecurity policies, protections, and procedures, and no single employee can be held responsible.

Hashing, encryption, digital certificates, and digital signatures are all ways to keep your data safe. Trustworthy certificate authorities (CAs) can be used to authenticate a website’s identity, giving users peace of mind that they have reached the correct destination.

Non-repudiation is a strategy for establishing credibility that ensures an assertion cannot be disputed. If your company’s employees utilise digital signatures on their outgoing emails, for instance, the authenticity of those communications will never be questioned. To add insult to injury, the recipient has no way of denying the fact that they received the email from the sender.

Availability

Data can remain secure and useful only if it can be accessed by those within the company and the customers they serve through access management. This necessitates on-time and proper operation of all connected systems, networks, and software. Also, those who have access to certain data should be able to use it whenever they need it, and they shouldn’t have to wait too long to do so.

Availability is jeopardised if, for instance, there is a power outage and no disaster recovery solution is in place to assist users in regaining access to mission-critical systems. Another reason why business-critical data and applications can go down is if users are unable to make it into the office because of, say, a flood or a particularly bad winter. Deliberate acts of sabotage, like denial-of-service (DoS) assaults or ransomware, can also threaten availability.

Replicated infrastructure, including servers and software, can help businesses guarantee their uptime. When the main system is down, these can be set to activate automatically. In addition, keeping up with software and security system updates helps improve availability. By doing so in cybersecurity, you lessen the chances that a programme will crash or that a new cybersecurity risk will find its way into your infrastructure. Full disaster recovery plans and backups aid in getting a business back up quickly after a catastrophe.