What is the CIA Triad?

What is the CIA Triad?

The CIA (confidentiality, integrity, and availability) triad is a well-accepted cybersecurity model that revolves around the three principles that form the abbreviation. The CIA triad helps security professionals and IT leaders guide in various aspects like information classification and information security.

This information security model got developed over time. Anyone working in the field of cybersecurity must know the significance of the CIA triad principles. It forms the cornerstone for various security infrastructures. Therefore, when a data violation, misinformation incident, or any other security incident happens, we can easily understand that it is because any one or more of the three principles got compromised.

Because of its potential, security professionals consider the CIA triad at the top while designing or assessing any security infrastructure. The CIA triad term got coined in 1986 and first seen in use by the JSC – NASA Information Security Plan document. Although the term might sound like a government agency or some secret project, it has nothing to do with the Central Intelligence Agency or any such body. Let us now understand each of the concepts of confidentiality, integrity, and availability in detail.

Confidentiality

We often hear phrases like privacy, unauthorized access, sensitive credentials, etc. These terms are crucial because we need them, especially in this digital era. We can preserve all of these by incorporating confidentiality. Confidentiality is one of the three principles of the CIA triad that determines to keep the data private and covert.

For possessing secrecy to any information, it is necessary to enforce access levels and prevent sharing of data. The primary aspect of preserving confidentiality is to ensure that users without proper authorization cannot access the information or business assets. The confidentiality of information largely depends on who needs access to the resource or how sensitive the information is for the enterprise or individual.

Cyber attacks like man-in-the-middle (MiTM) or privilege escalation can lead to a violation of data confidentiality. We can prevent data confidentiality by incorporating data encryption techniques, role-based access controls (RBAC), enabling access control policies, and using multi-factor authentications (MFAs).

Integrity

The I in the CIA triad talks about the integrity of data. The integrity of information at rest or in transit is essential to maintain harmony in this technology-driven world. The concept of integrity ensures that the information or data we receive from the other side is trustworthy. Integrity violation often involves tampering with data that leads to a loss of authenticity of data, accuracy, and reliability.

Cybercriminals modify or delete the data by taking unauthorized access and falsely ensuring that the authorized party has made the changes. Intrusion attacks, poor configuration management, weak passwords, improper security architecture, etc., can lead to data integrity violations. For shielding the integrity of information at rest or in transit, enterprises and application development should enforce encryption, hashing, digital signatures, digital certificates, and other security measures.

Availability

The A in the CIA triad talks about the availability of information. If confidentiality and integrity remain preserved, enterprises ensure that their servers and apps can properly serve the data to their customers without any downtime. Data availability confirms that networks, architecture, and applications must function as and when they should.

In other words, it determines that when the users, clients, or customers ask for specific data, the organization’s system and network can deliver it at the right time. Often cybercriminals and attackers perform various cyber attacks to eliminate data availability.

Attacks like Denial of Service (DoS), Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS), Permanent Denial of Service (PDoS), ransomware attacks, etc., are examples of cyber attacks that can lead to loss of data availability. To prevent data availability, enterprises must implement tools and techniques like regular system upgrades, software patching, data backups, denial-of-service protection solutions, comprehensive disaster recovery plans, and other preventative measures.

The Importance of CIA Triad

The CIA triad forms the foundation for system security and various security-centric measures. CIA triad caters to miscellaneous importance that enterprises and security professionals globally leverage to secure their information and infrastructure.

• CIA triad plays a significant role in determining various factors to keep your data safe.

• With the growing complexity of technological attacks, it's hard to keep the data secret/confidential. The CIA triad acts as a cornerstone to determine the confidentiality of data.

• Before the advent of the CIA triad, when cyber-attack occurred, it was hard for organizations to find the basis on which cyber-attacks can get measured. CIA triad provides a base to gauge the cyber-attacks and the factors need to protect the infrastructure.

• With the CIA triad, enterprise professionals and tech leaders can identify the data availability nodes/points within the system and measure the impact or find alternatives if any node fails.

• CIA triad has become a necessary tool for security professionals to make effective decisions based on its three principles.

How to Implement the CIA Triad?

Based on the enterprise’s security objectives, regulatory requirements, and the type of business, the priority of these three principles will vary.

For example, availability is a must for web applications and cloud-based service companies. Again, data integrity is a must in financial sectors, and the confidentiality principle is necessary for government agencies and organizations.

Here are some best practices security leaders and professionals can follow while implementing the CIA triad.

Confidentiality best practices:

• To preserve basic security hygiene in data confidentiality, enterprise professionals must incorporate data encryption and features like multi-factor authentication (MFA).

• Enterprises must categorize digital assets and data based on privacy requirements.

• Train employees about data confidentiality, digital privacy, and how to preserve security for privacy.

• Enterprises should ensure that file permissions and access control lists get monitored properly and access control policies get updated as and when required.

Integrity scoping:

• Enterprises should review data processing, data storage systems, and associated infrastructures periodically.

• Granular access control, version control, and data logs can enforce data integrity. Also, implementing hash functions and checksums can preserve data corruption.

• Organizations should also heed regulatory requirements and stay aligned with the latest compliance.

Maintain availability:

• Reliable cloud backup or backup in isolation (so that no malware or other cyber threats can reach it) can help maintain data availability.

• Enterprises should implement network or server monitoring programs and anti-malware solutions to prevent data loss.

• Enterprises should also take preventive measures with technologies like Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID), failover, redundant data storage in various geolocations, DDoS prevention tools, and other attack-specific defensive methods.

Pros and Cons of the CIA Triad

Although the CIA triad is a well-established set of principles that security professionals prefer, it might not always be a foolproof solution. So, enterprise security professionals must know its strengths and limitations.

Pros of the CIA Triad

• Open-ended: The CIA triad is open-ended, meaning it does not set any permanent goal or status. Thus, it keeps room for enterprises to upgrade the infrastructure or bring new devices for use.
• Simple to understand and use: Most cybersecurity models are complex. That confuses enterprises to understand and use them. But the CIA framework is easy-to-understand and straightforward.
• Maintains a balance: While other security frameworks focus only on security and privacy, the CIA triad focuses on data availability and enables leaders to make decisions based on various parameters.

Cons of the CIA Triad

• It lacks specificity: The simplicity of the CIA triad can trouble the organization because it does not provide any specific security knowledge.
• Limited usage: The CIA triad works best when dealing with massive information in the enterprise. But it might not be the best fit against phishing attacks, social engineering, or targeting employees.
• Not a holistic model: Security experts do not recommend using the CIA triad as a holistic security framework. Instead, they suggest using other frameworks and models along with it.