CIA Triad Beginner’s Guide in 2025

Hi there, In this article I am writing about CIA Triad, which is a foundation pillar and concept in cybersecurity. You need to learn and understand CIA Triad principle if you are interested getting into cybersecurity | Information security domain.

Whether you are an university student or a professional learning cybersecurity, this is the initial topic discussed in various books and certification prep books.

I learned about all these concepts while preparing for ISC2 CC and SSCP Exam, and now I am officially a certified CC and SSCP. Here, I am documenting and articulating CIA Principles, Case Studies and Examples in this Blog Post / Article.

You can refer this article for your preparation for various cybersecurity certifications like ISC2 CC,SSCP,CISSP or Comptia Security+

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The Structure of this Article will be presented like this:

1. CIA Triad Introduction
2. CIA Triad Explanation
3. CIA Triad Applications

CIA Triad Introduction

CIA Triad is a conceptual theory model used to explain information security in a nutshell. It isn’t the US Intelligence agency rather a model to relate real time cyber security applications.

You can Google CIA Triad to get multiple definitions, but rather the objective is to understand the concept to get basics right.

I am trying to make the concept simplified by explaining in simple terms rather make it complicated.

Let’s start, CIA Triad is comprised of 3 Components which are – Confidentiality | Integrity | Availability

Everything in Information Security revolves around the CIA Triad, as you go deeper into further cyber concepts like Security Controls, Risk Management, Security Operations and GRC.

This Article is going to be long and different from other articles from the web, hence I recommend you read it out of getting to know things, rather mugging up the definitions.

CIA Triad Explanation

The CIA Triad is like a tripod, if one leg breaks the other 2 is not of importance, hence 3 core principles need to remain in silo. The 3 key pillars are:

1. Confidentiality
2. Integrity
3. Availability

Confidentiality Pillar

As the name implied confidentiality. It is a property or principle which ensures Information/ Data is confidential and secure. Confidential means that only authorized viewers of any particular information piece are authorized to view it.

Here’s an example of our office 365 environment

Here in this scenario, I need to make sure only authorized people get access to office 365. If a threat actor enters this environment has access to many data points inside. I need to regularly audit and see who has got access to perform changes. Audit details are generated by IAM Solutions. Here you can see all audit trails by Microsoft Entra ID.

Confidentiality is an Information security principle where the main objective is to protect the data or information from:

1. Unauthorized people
2. Granting Access to authorized entities

Earlier when Internet and Technology was not prevalent we had physical documents which essentially is an information piece and data source. It was the job to protect the data copies from getting leaked and prevent from theft or unauthorized access.

Now, we have digital systems and file formats which changed how we consume and communicate information.

Data and file format types – Docx, PDF, CSV, PPT, JPEG, PNG, MP4, GIF, JSON, RAR, JAR and various others

Practicing Confidentiality frameworks and practices in an organization makes sure that data within the organization and business remains:

1. Safe and secure
2. Available to Authorized users to view the information

How would you feel and react if your information like:

1. PII and PHI ( Personal Identification Information ) ( Personal Healthcare Information ) – Gets leaked on the web and users are able to view it publicly
2. Bank Statements and Credit card details are at fingertips of Threat Actor ( Hacker )
3. Your Intimate moments ( Pictures, Videos )

This is why achieving and maintaining Confidentiality becomes quite critical. It’s not only important for organizations but also common population who need to protect their digital identities and keep their information secure. We are living now officially in web 3.0 era and we do not know how digitally things are going to evolve.

But the CIA Triad will remain the same till next 100 years.

In today’s IT landscape we have systems and network appliances like Routers, Switches, Firewalls, Load Balancers, Servers which enable flow of data communication across networks.

In the context of “Confidentiality” it’s the job of IT and Cyber Teams to protect the confidentiality to achieve privacy and security in an enterprise. Imagine Access to a Firewall, Router and a Switch in the wrong hands. You can crumble the network and do harm in the premise. Imagine services and data connected to that environment.

Hence, It becomes extremely important to focus on Confidentiality Principle of Cyber Security.

To achieve Confidentiality, recommended actions include implementing access controls, keeping safe by encrypting the data.

Technologies like IAM, Encryption and Firewall help in protecting the confidentiality in real time.

Confidentiality Summary – Preventing Unauthorized access and protecting sensitive data.

Integrity Pillar

Integrity is another critical pillar of cybersecurity and it’s quite serious if integrity is compromised.

Integrity means, Data or Information is altered, modified and corrupted. There are many examples which speaks about integrity.

From Software to Files, Machines to Car Systems, Satellites to Servers everything can be altered and modified to cause damage.

Here’s an Example from a practical scenario. Organizations use IAM Solutions to manage Employee Directory and database. Let’s say a threat actor got access to Entra ID of an enterprise ( IAM) and modified roles of some employees to escalate privileges and perform their objectives. This is more of an access control domain area, and as cybersecurity is overlapped often terms can be used for different scenarios.

Hence, Protecting Identities becomes critical in an enterprise holding sensitive information.

From a Technical lens we can speak much about integrity pillar. Every file has a hash value which is generated to prove it’s authenticity. We can check whether the hash value has been changed or modified to perform analysis and generate a view point..

Hash values are nothing but cryptographic algorithms and they are published by NIST.

It’s called SHA ” Secure Hash Algorithm”. Multiple Hash Versions include:

1. SHA 1
2. SHA 2
3. SHA 3

These are algorithms which are all mathematic and is often used in Cyber Analysis to check integrity across scenarios.

Examples of Integrity:

1. Modifying Health Records
2. Altering Financial Statements
3. Database Modifications

Just like confidentiality, Integrity needs to be protected to protect the Information.

To protect Integrity there are various ways. One common and widely used method is Hashing, as I mentioned earlier.

Integrity Summary: Protecting the Information Resource from Unauthorized Modification

Availability

Availability as name implies, system resources and data needs to available for users and customers ensuring 99.9% uptime.

A telecom provider needs to operate 24/7 to provide service to consumers.

A data center needs to be up and running always to provide essential services like compute ,storage, databases and others.

Just like confidentiality and integrity, Availability is also critical and as cyber professionals, it’s the job to keep it secure and make services available as per sla.

Threat actors can perform attacks to bring down websites of governments and businesses or disrupt operations of critical infrastructure like:

1. Power Companies
2. Oil and gas pipelines
3. Financial Institutions

Often attacks like DOS and DDOS hamper the availability domain, because they carry out attacks with huge number of botnets which will slow down systems causing availability to affect.

Similarly, access to resources and controls need to be active so that employees can perform their duties and achieve work outcome.

Availability Summary: Information Resources needs to available 24/7 to enable digital flow.

CIA Triad Applications

Here, I am showcasing some real time examples and applications which demonstrate the use case of CIA Triad

Confidentiality Applications

Protecting Login Pages and Granting Access to authorized entities

Login Pages which enable users to enter and authorize can include:

1. Educational Institutions Logins
2. Financial Institutions Logins
3. Server Logins
4. Consumer Logins ( Gmail, Outlook, Windows and Applications)
5. Government Institutions Logins

To protect, secure and authorize it we use implementation of access controls – Multi Factor Authentication and Biometrics

Protecting Sensitive Files and access view to trusted entities

Files can be classified as:

1. Financial Records, Statements and Customer Data
2. Business Contracts
3. Intellectual Property
4. Government Policies, Procedures and Insider Information
5. Secret Information

To achieve Confidentiality – protecting files is critical , commonly 2 methods are used – Encryption and Access Controls Deployment

Integrity Applications

Protecting Files from Tampering

Again Files can range from:

1. Financial Records
2. PII and PHI Records
3. Identities Credentials
4. Software Files

To protect integrity common ways include – Hashing, Encryption and Digital Signatures

Availability Applications

CyberNomadTV running 24/7 across world

I need to make sure the website needs to run, so that my audience gets access to information anytime resulting in revenue growth for cybernomadtv

To protect Availability – We implement DDOS Protection ( Cloudflare) , CDN ( Akamai) Implementation and Powerful Hosting Solution ( Kinsta )

End Notes

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