What does the CIA Triad stand for?

The CIA Triad is a fundamental concept in information security that stands for Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability. Each component plays a critical role in protecting information systems and ensuring data security.

Confidentiality refers to the measures taken to protect sensitive information from unauthorized access and disclosure. This can involve encryption, access controls, and authentication mechanisms to ensure that only authorized individuals can access specific data.

Integrity ensures that the data remains accurate, consistent, and trustworthy over its lifecycle. It involves preventing unauthorized modification of data, which can be achieved through hashing, checksums, and access controls that only allow certain users to make changes.

Availability means that information and resources are accessible to authorized users when needed. This involves implementing measures such as redundancy, failover systems, and regular maintenance to ensure that systems remain online and operational, thus allowing legitimate users access to information without interruptions.

Understanding these three principles is essential for designing secure systems and responding effectively to security threats. The other options do not accurately represent the foundational elements of information security as defined by the CIA Triad.