Integrity
Definition
The property that information is accurate, complete, and has not been modified without authorisation. Protected by cryptographic hashing, digital signatures, and change management. Breached by unauthorised modification, corruption, or deletion.
- Field
- Information security, CIA triad
- Definition
- Data is accurate, complete, unmodified without authorisation
- Protected by
- Cryptographic hashing, digital signatures, change management
- Breached by
- Unauthorised modification, corruption, deletion
Common questions
How does integrity differ from confidentiality within the CIA triad?+
Confidentiality concerns who is allowed to see data, while integrity concerns whether the data itself has been altered. An attacker could preserve confidentiality entirely and still breach integrity by silently modifying a record no one else reads.
Why is hashing specifically used to verify integrity in digital forensics?+
A cryptographic hash produces a fixed-length value that changes drastically with even a single-bit alteration to the source data, so comparing hash values before and after handling evidence gives a reliable, verifiable check that no modification occurred.
Related terms
- Availability
- The property that systems and data are accessible to authorised users when needed. Protected by redundancy, backup, failover, and incident response capabilities....
- Confidentiality
- The property that information is not disclosed to unauthorised individuals, processes, or devices. Protected by access controls, encryption, and need-to-know policies. Breached...
- Non-Repudiation
- The property that a party cannot deny having performed an action. Provided by digital signatures, timestamped audit logs, and certified delivery receipts....
- Threat
- A potential cause of an unwanted incident that could harm an asset. Threats may be natural (flood, fire), environmental (power failure), human...
- Vulnerability
- A weakness in an asset or in a control protecting that asset, which a threat could exploit to cause harm. Examples: an...