What is CIA triad?

In CIA triad, C stands for Confidentiality, I stands for Integrity and A stands for Availability. The CIA triad is a common model for the development of security policies and systems in information security stream. The CIA triad forms the basis of security of an information. That means, when the CIA standards have been met, the security profile of that information or the organization is stronger and better equipped to handle threat incidents.

Confidentiality means information or a data asset is confined only to authorized users. The confidentiality includes protections like data encryption and 2FA. Confidentiality can be achieved by allotting user id and password kind of authorization.

Integrity means the information or data must be intact, complete and accurate. The integrity maintains trustworthiness of data. Integrity can be achieved by data encryption and hashing algorithm kind of authentication methods.

Availability means ensuring the information or system that are ready for use as intended for all authorized users. Availability can be achieved by maintaining hardware & completing repairs immediately, software patching or upgrading, network optimization kind of steps.

All the above goals are must be considered when it comes to creating policies or procedures to protect information or system of an organization. CIA triad of an information security is an information security benchmark model used to evaluate an organization’s information security.