What is the CIA Triad? Core Principles of Cybersecurity Simplified

The Practice of ensuring Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability of information by protecting the network, Devices, People, and data from unauthorized access or criminal exploitation.

Developed in the 1970s as computers became more integrated into military operations.

Adopted by the U.S. Department of Defense and other government entities.

Still forms the core framework for information security policies today.

Preserving authorized restrictions on information access and disclosure, including means for protecting personal privacy and proprietary information.

Example: You send your accountant an email using Gmail Confidential Mode, with the file attached and access set to expire in 7 days. You also enable SMS passcode access to make sure only the intended recipient can view the email.

The ability to ensure that a system and its data have not suffered unauthorized Modification.

Example: You initiate a $1,000 transfer. The bank:

Logs the transfer in your account history for later verification.

Uses a digital signature and checksum to seal the transaction.

Sends the details to the recipient bank.

Compares the hash/checksum at both ends to confirm the transaction was not altered.

Suppose Integrity fails or a system error, attack, or other event changes the amount to $10,000. In that case, the hash mismatch or digital signature failure will alert the bank, and the transaction will be blocked or flagged for review.

The ability to access resources when needed, even under duress or after a cyberattack.

Example: You’re in a different time zone and need a file at 3 a.m. Even if there’s a network outage at a Google data center in the U.S., you can still access your document from Google Drive because it’s served from another location.

If Google Drive were to go down (rarely), access to all files would be temporarily blocked. But due to built-in redundancy and fast failover, outages are usually resolved within minutes.

Because they cover the three most important Goals of protecting data:

•Confidentiality – keep data private

•Integrity – keep data accurate

•Availability – keep data accessible when needed

Images used in the blog are generated by Gemini.