Principles Of Information Security: An Overview

Information security is essential. What are the three core principles of information security?

Information Security: Definition

Information security is also known as InfoSec. It is the process of protecting information from any unauthorized use.

Also, security experts in this field will analyze threats. It also analyzes the vulnerabilities of an organization’s assets. These assets include data, applications, and systems.

Furthermore, organizations need to apply information security. They rely on their computer networks for their daily work.

So, make sure that your networks and systems are secure. Thus, you can efficiently deliver their products. You can also give good services to your customers.

Moreover, these experts will apply security controls. This is important to lessen the risks within the assets. These security controls are based on the three principles of information security.

3 Principles Of Information Security

The principles of InfoSec is also known as the CIA triad. It is a well-known model for making security actions.

Using these principles, your company can identify problem areas. So, you can apply the necessary actions.

The three principles of information security are:

1. Confidentiality
2. Integrity
3. Availability

Confidentiality

Confidentiality means keeping an organization’s data in private or secret. Also, it means controlling the persons who can access the data to avoid disclosure.

This principle requires the following areas:

1. Enable access to the ones who are authorized only.
2. Prevent access to the ones who are unauthorized.

For example, not all employees should access the Payroll database. So, you enable access to payroll employees only. And you prevent those who are unauthorized to access the data.

Moreover, there are countermeasures you can do to protect the confidentiality of data. These include:

• strong access controls
• authentication processes
• data encryption
• steganography
• training of employees

Integrity

Integrity is the quality of something as a whole. In information security, it is the consistency of networks, data, and systems.

This principle requires the following areas:

1. Prevent data tampering.
2. Ensure the correctness and reliability of data.

For example, a customer of an e-commerce store expects your product is accurate. Also, there should be no alteration of pricing and product availability information.

Another example: a bank should assure that there is no tampering on their clients’ private data and account balances.

Moreover, integrity involves protecting data in transit. It includes the security of sending an email or uploading a file.

Also, it involves protecting the stored data. It includes physical storage in laptops or storage devices. It also covers data in the data center or in the cloud.

Furthermore, the countermeasures for this principle are:

• digital certificates
• intrusion detection
• hashing
• encryption
• digital signatures
• version control
• strong authentication of data
• limited access controls

Availability

Availability is protecting the system’s functionality. It also includes the functionality of applications and data.

This principle requires the following areas:

1. Ensure the timely access of authorized users.
2. Secure the runtime of networks, systems, and applications.

Moreover, to avoid compromise, the countermeasures for this principle include:

1. redundancy of servers, networks, and applications
2. hardware fault tolerance of servers and storage
3. regular back-up of data
4. regular software patching
5. updated system upgrades
6. disaster recovery plans for breaches
7. denial-of-service protection solutions