Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability Explained

Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability are security terms. Security professionals use these terms to refer to many aspects of networking.

Confidentiality

Confidentiality protects sensitive information. It blocks unauthorized access. It refers to a situation where only authorized users are allowed to access the information. Administrators use several methods to maintain confidentiality. Some of them are the following.

• They configure permissions on files and folders to block unauthorized users and applications from accessing them.
• They encrypt the data in storage devices. Only users with the decryption key can gain access to the data. It is known as encrypt-in-storage.
• They encrypt the data as it travels across the network or the Internet. It is known as encrypt-in-transit.

Integrity

Integrity ensures that the accessed data is in its original state. For example, you create and store a file on the file server. One month later, you access that file again. How will you know the file has not been tampered with or altered? You can use technologies that offer integrity services to identify whether the file has been modified or is in its original state.

Hashing is one of the most widely used techniques to prove integrity. It runs a hashing algorithm on the data and generates a hash value. You can use the generated hash value to verify the integrity of the data. You must save it in a safe place for reference. Whenever you want to check the integrity of the data, rerun the hashing algorithm and compare the result with the saved hashed value. If both values match, the data is intact. If not, the data has changed. Message Digest 5 (MD5), Secure Hashing Algorithm 1 (SHA-1), and SHA-256 are examples of hashing algorithms.

Availability

Availability ensures the data remains available whenever the user needs it. For example, if a user saves a file on the file server, they expect the file to be available on the server whenever they want. Administrators use many technologies to increase the availability. Some commonly used techniques are the following.

Backup

Administrators regularly take backups of all critical data and save it on a remote site. Backup copies allow them to restore the data in case of accidents or server crashes. Saving backup in a remote location eliminates the chance of data loss in the event of a natural disaster.

RAID

RAID deploys multiple hard drives in an array. If a drive fails, data remains available on other drives of the array. Users do not face any downtime.

Cluster

Cluster functions similarly to a RAID but deploys multiple servers for the same applications. If one server fails, applications remain available on the other servers of the cluster.

FHRP

FHRP provides redundancy for routers. If a router fails, another router takes over.

Conclusion

Confidentiality means the data is accessed only by authorized users. Integrity means the data accessed is in the original state. Availability means data remains available all the time.