Three Goals of Computer Security
After seeing or hearing the word CIA, you may be thinking about the Central Intelligence Agency from the United States, but this time we are going to talk about a different CIA, the CIA triangle of Information Security, but what´s this? where is it? is it edible?
Well the CIA Triangle is composed of the 3 main goals of Computer and Information Security:
Confidentiality
This means that only authorized persons can access the information, because you wouldn`t like someone else reading your personal information or something that is for a specific person or group.
Imagine a very simple example where you write a message with detailed information for a secret party you´re planning for a friend, it wouldn´t be nice if that person could read the message and realize about the party, it ruins everything :(.
Integrity
What´s this??
Well integrity refers to the fact that the data we are reciving or sending must NOT be altered by anyone and if it happens, we are able to verify it, a very good tool for this is signing files and if somehow the data is changed we are able to check it.
An everyday life example could be banks, when we make transactions we won´t be happy if somehow you just send $1000 but the reciber only gets $100 at least I will be very upset and angry, because, hey, I just lost $900 😦
Availability
What would happen if your data was been carried by the white rabbit of Alice in Wonderland??? Your data wouldn´t be available for you when you need it, that´s what availability is about, that it must be ensured that you have access to data all time.
El Machetero Blog´s 