CIA triad
confidentiality integrity availability · AIC triad · security triad · triade DIC · DIC · DICT
The three core goals of information security: confidentiality (only authorised people can access the data), integrity (the data is not wrongly altered) and availability (it is there when you need it).
In practice
Every security measure serves at least one of these goals: encryption protects confidentiality, hashes and digital signatures protect integrity, and backups and redundancy keep things available. In a risk assessment, each piece of data or business process is rated on all three, sometimes with traceability or proof added (French methods speak of DICT or DICP). Incidents read the same way: a leak hits confidentiality, fraud hits integrity, ransomware or a DDoS hits availability.
In a clinic, patient records need strong confidentiality (medical secrecy), strong integrity (a wrong dosage can be fatal) and strong availability in the emergency department. That is why ransomware is so serious there: it strikes all three at once, with data stolen, possibly tampered with and made inaccessible.
