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Wayne McKinnon's
Security Resource Center

Four security threats   (CIA + A)

• Confidentiality

• Integrity

• Authenticity

• Availability

Protective measures

• Firewall

• Program control

• E-mail protection

• Privacy

• PKI/certificates/keys

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Confidentiality

Confidentiality refers to the need to keep information private, and the ability to ensure that information is not intercepted as it passes through the one's corporate network, or the global Internet. Confidentiality can be achieved using encryption

Integrity

Preserving the integrity of data includes ensuring that the information is not tampered with or changed either while it is in transit, or while it is stored. Digital signatures are one method of ensuring data integrity. A document, e-mail message or other is said to be digitally signed in order for its integrity to be assured.

Authenticity

Authenticity proves that the sender of the data is who they say they are. A forged document is not authentic, since the sender has impersonated the author. Proving authenticity requires the recipient to be able to identify the supposed author by verifying the author's digital signature using a certificate belonging to the author.

Availability

While not directly considered to be a security threat, availability can be enhanced through better security protection, either by:

• Accurately identifying the someone trying to gain access to a system (Authenticity)

• employing system hardening tecniques.

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